RH-Negative Mothers & Pregnancy
If your blood is Rh- and the baby's father has Rh+ blood, the child may inherit the Rh factor from him and be Rh+ too. This would make your blood incompatible with that of your baby. As a result, your body may produce antibodies to protect itself from this "foreign" substance. The antibodies may be strong enough to attack the Rh+ blood of a chid in a future pregnancy.
Fortunately, there is a solution to this problem of the Rh- mother and an Rh+ baby. Within seventy-two hours of delivery of an Rh+ child, the mother must receive an injection of Rh immune globulin (called RhoGAM). An Rh- woman who has an abortion or miscarriage of an Rh+ child would also need the injection. Use of RhoGAM in this way protects future unborn children by preventing antibodies from forming in the mother's blood.
In a small number of Rh- women, antibodies may be produced during pregnancy as well as after delivery. An injection of RhoGAM during week twenty-eight of the pregnancy can prevent this problem. Because there is no way to predict in advance which cases will need such treatment, many prenatal care providers recommend that all Rh- women receive RhoGAM during pregnancy as a precaution. This procedure is safe for both mother and fetus. Another dose of RhoGAM after delivery would be needed if the baby has Rh+ blood.
If you are Rh+, there is no need for you to worry about any of this. If you and the baby's father are both Rh-, again there is no need for concern. The problem arises only with an Rh- mother and an Rh+ baby.
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