Rhesus negative! So confused about new procedures..

[Sofin]

Hi ladies,
I had my booking appointment with the midwife yesterday and she told me there are new procedures for the rhesus negative treatment. In my last pregnancy I was very happy with the whole thing, as I got one injection during pregnancy and one after birth and all went smoothly. DD is Rh positive and I have a feeling this one probably will be too, as it's only 1/3 chance of Rh neg, apparently (?) when the father is Rh pos.

Anyway, the midwife said they now take a blood sample at 16 weeks where they are able to determine whether the baby is Rh neg/pos! And then I will/will not get the injection. But how is this even possible? If I have no antibodies, then how can they determine this? I found I got a bit stressed. I'm overly scared of rhesus disease, due to the fact that I've been thinking of being a surrogate after completing our family and don't want to ruin those chances.

Hope this message wasn't too long, but does someone know what these new procedures entails and is it all safe and good, and similar to the old procedures? xx

Found this on NHS website:

Checkingyour baby's blood type

It's possible to determine if an unborn baby is RhD positive or RhD negative by taking a simple blood test during pregnancy.

Genetic information (DNA) from the unborn baby can be found in the mother'sblood, which allows the blood group of the unborn baby to bechecked without any risk. It's usually possible to get a reliable result from this testafter 11 to 12 weeks ofpregnancy, which islong before the baby is at risk from the antibodies.

Ifyour baby is RhD negative,they'renot at risk of rhesus disease and no extra monitoring or treatment will be necessary. If they're found to be RhD positive, the pregnancy will be monitored more closely so that any problems that may occur can be treated quickly.

In the future, RhD negative womenwho haven't developed anti-D antibodies may be offered this test routinely, tosee if they're carrying an RhD positive or RhD negative baby, toavoid unnecessary treatment.

@dementedpixie Wow, thanks a lot! I googled a bit, but could only find the old procedures, so thanks :) Crazy that they're able to determine this before the baby is born!

www.nhs.uk/conditions/rhesus-disease/diagnosis/ from here, if you want the full info

The reason you won't find much about it yet is because is it's only available at a small number of hospitals not everywhere

It's similar technology to the harmony test where they can separate your blood from the baby's blood to find the blood type. Very clever and nothing to be scared of.

@dementedpixie @pastabest @breaker Thank you all! I feel a lot more assured :)

I like the new way of doing it. They don't do it that way at my hospital yet so I have to have the anti d injection regardless. It turned out ds was neg too so it was unnecessary with him and I'd rather not have these things if not necessary.

I am theses negative and my 2nd pregnancy I had been sensitised and my son was really poorly. I ended up having urgent section at 32 weeks.

With ds3 I had the periphery blood tests described by your midwife. It basically tells the phenotype of the babies blood, so they can see if it's thesis negative or positive. If positive they actively manage it a lot more. If negative they still monitor but not as much.

@Whyhaveidonethis Sorry to hear your son was poorly during pregnancy! Do you think this new test is better than the old way then (if you don't mind me asking)?

@Sofin I'm not sure to be honest. When I had DS3 they did the peripheral bloods but kept saying that it measure phenotype not genotype (or vice versa) and apparently these are occasionally different. Which is why they still continue to do regular antibody tests during the pregnancy. So if you were one of those few that this was true for, possibly you could miss out on the anti D injections even though you need them.

I should say hower, that my last pregnancy was 10 years ago (!!) so maybe it's changed now.

@Sofin I had the blood test after my 12 week scan and baby came back positive so have to have anti D, its just so they don't have to give as much un-needed medication out zz

Thanks for the info :) Feel a lot less stressed now :)