Anti D injections - Do I really need them?!

[dottiemad]

Hi all,

After a recent chat with my midwife I am left with questions about whether or not I need the Anti D jabs....

I am Brh- my DP is Orh- therefore I shouldnt need the jabs? I have had bloods taken to test for +ve antibodies in my blood so if this is negative then I will not need the injections surely??

Its almost like they want you to have them 'just in case' but just in case what? It seems impossible that my baby will be rh+.

Thanks

Madreloco how much do you think it costs to make anti d?

They have to recruit human donors inject them with anti d antibody (which has been collected/screened) and then there blood is harvested/processed/screened. Actually declining anti d saves the NHS hundreds of pounds.

I assume mw will say if you are in one of the trial areas.
The harmony test costs at least £500 or so, wonder how much it costs for the baby blood type (rh factor) testing.
If it saves money to decline it you would think finding out how whose dp is rh -ve too would be cheapest option (as in this post) and then maybe doing the free fetal dna on those women.
As for rh+ men there must be 50-0% chance of a rh-ve baby.
Also if you dont trust blood tests to be correct, is the free fetal dna any more trustworthy.
I wonder if harmony does give blood type results and if nhs could use the results provided privately. Or even use info from amnio (not sure if they can do it from that)

They can blood type from amnio but that's not an option for me.
I know in some areas they are testing fathers for blood type, I believe Milton Keynes area does it.
My dr was happy to blood test dh when I explained my situation and agreed it would save the NHS £££. My dh turned out to be rh+ though

The problem with testing all fathers for blood type though is that it relies on the mother telling absolute truth about who the father is.

That's true mincepies, one would hope women would have the sense not to lie when the consequences are so serious.

It's very patronising of the NHS generally to assume all women will lie /cannot be trusted and therefore not even provide an option for testing

It's not like mws aren't used to asking awkward questions. My mw asked me both times at booking if my husband was the babies father and if I'd been taking drugs or sniffing glue of all things.

I think looking only 21% of uk population are rh-ve.
Dp had some standard bloods done and was charged £100 on nhs so if it costs that much not sure how much it would save.