rhesus negative

[MUSA]

Not sure if this topic has being posted before, i wanted to know, when you are pregnant with your second baby do you still have to have the anti d injection.

I was told by a friend that getting pregnant second time round and being a rhesus negative is more risky, please tell me that's not true.

after your 1st baby, if the bay is rh+ then you will have had a jab with anti-d. if your baby was rh- then you wont have. the problem occurs when the +/- mix and your body will produce antibodies in subsecent pregnancies with the rh+ baby. you should have regular antibody screens throughout the pregnancy, and if baby is rh+ then another jab wil lbe needed. usually it causes no probs. i am rh- and have had no probs with antibodies.

oh i forgot, i think its routine now to have the anti-d during pegnancy as well.

You will usually be tested for antibodies during your pregnancy to make sure that everything's okay. I am Rh Neg and pg with no.3. Both ds1 and ds2 are Rh Pos so I had to have the Anti-D injection after the birth(s). Otherwise there was no problem whatsoever. This time around the policy has changed and I have been given appointments to have Anti-D at 28 weeks and 34 weeks.

Hi, another rhesus negative mum here, currently 14 weeks with baby no 2. Like you Musa I was a bit worried, but have had lots of reassurance from midwife/mumsnet. I had a (very slight) bleed 3 weeks ago and was given anti-d as a precaution, I will also be offered it again later on depending on my antibodies, I think. They way I look at things, there a quite a lot of us out there all having trouble-free pregnancies, although I am never complacent about pregnancy I do find this reassuring.

i am rhesus negative and got the anti d injection after DD was born. the GP said i would just get a few more bloodtests than normal to make sure all is well.

I think it varies by area, but I am rh neg as well and saw Dr today. It is routine here to give Anti D at 28 weeks to all Rh neg mums to be incase you need it. You may also need it after the birth if baby is pos.
I am not sure whether to have it or not (having read loads of comments on mumsnet and on the web generally) about the safety of the anti d injection. Need to make my mind up cos i am 24 weeks now.
Dr said the risk is increased with more pregnancies you have, but that if you test at 16 weeks and have no anti bodies the risk of developing any is very low (at least in 2nd pregnancy).

i am rhesus negative, i was given anti-D as routine at 28 and 34 weeks (my first baby, BTW), and i was given a third dose post-delivery once it had been establised that my baby was rhesus positive. I was told if i go on to have any more children, i could expect the same treatment unless i had any bleeding or trauma, in which case i'd get more anti-D then too. HTH x

Hi, I'm rh neg too, and have had four children with no problems (I had the anti-D injection with all of them). The only thing I can suggest is asking to have the anti-D injection into your thigh - the student midwife suggested this after my son was born, so I had the injection into my thigh and can honestly say that it DIDN'T HURT!!

All previous anti-D injections were in my arm and stung like hell - I dreaded each one of them.
HTH

My anti d was given on my bottom, lot's of meat there so did'nt hurt. Thank's guy's i feel so much better now.

Pacinofan good luck with your second baby.

Message withdrawn

Another RHneg here and am just commencing 2nd pregnancy so was relieved to see this posting as was a little concerned.
I'll definately be having the Anti-D's again this time (had 3 with DS) as I've inherited my blood group from my Gran who had problems with 2 pregnancies (we are talking the 1950's so things have moved on!!) Anyway don't want to scare you and I'm glad you posted this as it has reassured me that there are plenty of us out there who all carry our little ones safely.

I'm RH Neg and during my 2nd pregnancy 2 years ago I was told that the policy had changed and I had to have the Anti-D at 28 and 34 weeks. I wasn't happy about this and I knew that my dh is also RH Neg but the hospital wouldn't take our word for it or test him, so dh went along to the nurse at the GP surgery and had a blood test to prove that he was and then I didn't need to have the Anti-d.
You could get your Dh/DP tested to see what his blood type is, it's actually cheaper for the NHS to do this than to give the Anti-d, but they don't tell you that.

Hi,

I know I'm a bit late on this one, but I don't often look at this bit of the site.

I'm one of a very small precentage of women who have had problems with RH- & antibodies. I don't want to scare anyone, but would just like to point out why I think it's important to have the anti-d injections.

I'm RH- and during my second pregnancy, they found antibodies in my blood. I had the anti-d injection after my first baby was born, but didn't have any throughout the pregnancy, as they didn't do it then. I didn't think that I had any bleeding during my first pregnancy, but I've been told that I must have had a very small bleed for the antibodies to develop.

My antobodies built up to quite high numbers at about 20 wks in my second pregnancy (and once they're up, you can't do anything about it - there's always there), From then onwards I had scans every two weeks (they can check whether the baby is becoming affected by the antibodies through scans) and was warned that my baby would probably need a transfusion soon after birth, or even whilst in the womb. I was also told that they would need to induce me at 37 weeks as they can't accurately guage whether the baby is being affected by the antibodies after this stage.

Anyway, after a stressful pregnancy, having regular, uncomfortable scans (much more uncomfortable at 30 wks plus, than at 20. . . ), I was lucky in that DS didn't need to have a blood transfusion whilst in the womb. I was induced at 37 wks and my DS did have to have a transfusion 2 days after the birth.

He was fine at birth, but became severly jaundiced within a few hours and had to go into special care unit on his second day. The transfusion was later that day and this was a full transfusion, which is a long, laborious and risky procedure on a newborn. He narrowly escaped a second transfusion on the 5th day, as his liver started doing what it should (usually takes this long for babies livers to function properly apparrently) and getting rid of the bilirubin in his blood. We were able to leave the special care untit and go home after a week.

The upshot is that he's was absolutely fine after then and is a perfectly healthy 18mth old now, but it was extremely distressing at the time.

As I said, I don't want to worry anybody. These cases are extremely rare these days due to the anti-d jabs, but I think that it sometimes helps to know why these jabs are given and why they are very important.

I would certainly advise anyone who is RH- to have the anti-d.