Blood relations

Treatment is given if:

• An exchange of blood between mother and baby takes place during delivery
• A rhesus-negative mother has had bleeding during pregnancy
• The mother has had a miscarriage, which can cause her blood to produce antibodies attacking the Rhesus positive blood of her lost baby
• Other situations – chorionic villus sampling, amniocentesis or ectopic pregnancy – have lead to contact with foetal blood

These injections will prevent your blood from producing antibodies against Rh(D) blood cells, thus protecting you during any future pregnancies.

Screening during pregnancy

If your screening blood test shows that you are rhesus negative, you will have extra blood tests during pregnancy to see if you have developed any rhesus antibodies. This rarely happens, but if it does, you will be carefully monitored.

• You will also be given an injection of Anti-D immunoglobulin between your 28th and 29th weeks of pregnancy.
• After delivery, if your newborn is Rh(D) positive (this will be determined from an umbilical cord blood sample), you will be given another injection within 72 hours.

Anti-D injections are prepared using donor blood possessing high amounts of antibodies and there are rarely any side effects. Any risks are far outweighed by the enormous benefits of Anti-D injections.