RhoGAM is also given anytime that your blood could come into contact with Rh-positive blood cells, such as: Are there any other times that I might need RhoGAM? If your baby’s blood is Rh negative, you will not need the second RhoGAM shot. If your baby has Rh-positive blood, you will get another dose of RhoGAM within 72 hours after you give birth. Soon after you give birth, your baby’s blood will be tested for Rh. For this reason, RhoGAM is given at 28 weeks of pregnancy to protect you for the rest of your pregnancy. When do I get RhoGAM?Īlthough the chance of your blood and the baby’s blood mixing is highest at the time that you give birth, which rarely happens, it can also happen during the last trimester of your pregnancy, when your placenta is growing and the membranes that separate your blood from your baby’s blood are very thin. These proteins keep your immune system from making permanent antibodies to Rh-positive blood. RhoGAM is a sterilized solution made from human blood that contains a very small amount of Rh-positive proteins. RhoGAM is a medicine that stops your blood from making antibodies that attack Rh-positive blood cells. Fortunately, Rh sensitization is very rare because women who are Rh negative can get a shot that stops their body from making antibodies to Rh-positive blood. Rh sensitization can cause fetal anemia (low iron in the blood), miscarriage, stillbirth, or a serious illness in the baby that is called hemolytic disease of the newborn. But in your next pregnancy, the antibodies that you made when you were exposed to Rh-positive blood at your first birth can cross the placenta and attack the Rh-positive red blood cells, if your next baby has Rh-positive blood.
This is why being Rh negative will not harm your baby during your first pregnancy. The most likely time that you would be exposed to your baby’s blood is when you give birth. If your baby is Rh positive and you get a small amount of your baby’s blood into your circulation (bloodstream) when you are pregnant or when you give birth, your body can make antibodies that hurt and kill red blood cells that are Rh positive. What does this mean for my pregnancy?īeing Rh negative means that you do not have Rh proteins on your red blood cells. You can become very sick if you are given blood that is a different blood type unless it is O blood, which will not cause harm to people who have other blood types.
If you ever need a blood transfusion, you should be given blood that is your same blood type. A test that tells you your blood type is done at your first prenatal visit and usually when you are admitted to the hospital for labor if you are planning a hospital birth.
#A negative blood type plus#
The letter of your blood group plus the Rh makes your blood type. Your blood can be Rh positive, which means that you have the Rh protein, or Rh negative, which means that you do not have the Rh protein. The red blood cells also have a protein that is called Rh on the surface of the cell. The red cells in your blood can be A, B, AB, or O. Your blood type tells you about markers on the surface of your red blood cells.
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