Hep B for newborns, the norm?

This is the next part in my ongoing research into newborn procedures and vaccinations.
Along with a Vitamin K injection right when your baby is born, silver nitrate is syringed into his/her eyes and then administered a Hepititus B shot.

Logically, if a mother has an STD, the infection can be spread to the infant through the eyes when passing through the birth canal, and thus the silver nitrate is an antibiotic to counteract this. But what if the mother doesn't have any STD's, why then is it necessary to burn a newborns retina and blind them for the first few hours of their life when they are at no risk? It doesn't! But it is a little something extra to add to your extrenuous hospital bill.

Then we come to Hep B, again, this makes sense if the mother has tested positive for the virus, but if not why vaccinate a child at birth and 3 more times over the next few years for a disease that is spread through blood and sex? The risks involved in this vaccine (or any vaccine) completely outweigh the tiny percentage of babies that might contract this disease from their mothers. If we were even in a country where the percentage of people with Hep B were higher than the meager 1% the current US statistics show, like in Asia and other developing areas, where the percentages are much higher.

According to the World Health Organization, the following are the ways in which Hep B is contracted:

Hepatitis B virus is transmitted between people by contact with the blood or other body fluids (i.e. semen and vaginal fluid) of an infected person.
Common modes of transmission in developing countries are:

• perinatal (from mother to baby at birth)
• early childhood infections (inapparent infection through close interpersonal contact with infected household contacts)
• unsafe injections practices
• blood transfusions
• sexual contact

In many developed countries (e.g. those in western Europe and North America), patterns of transmission are different than those mentioned above. Today, the majority of infections in these countries are transmitted during young adulthood by sexual activity and injecting drug use. HBV is a major infectious occupational hazard of health workers. 

I don't intend on allowing my newborn to engage in sex or intravenous drug use, although maybe by the time he is 4 he may be experimenting...  and thus I will not be injecting this live virus into my infant just because it's what is "done" at medical facilities. 

To be exempt from these procedures, you need to create a letter that is signed by the hospital/birthing center. Here are some samples you may use.

Further reading:

A Doctor's opinion

Thinktwice


Hep B Vaccine may be linked to MS

Love and Knowledge,
Kerry, the Momster