To all rhesus negative women – A Must Rea

I'm in Feilding so I guess my results will be going through the same process.

Your midwife should already have a copy of those first antenatal bloods and know your blood type, but incase she hasn't ordered them, I would definitely let her know- she needs to know!

Miss A are you sure? I thought it was standard practice to give anti-D to RH neg women after birth. (Sorry hope that didn't sound rude, don't mean to doubt you!)
My midwife has emailed me some stuff she was sent in October 2009. PM me your email if you want it. They don’t seem to be particularly in favour of it although most of their concerns seem to be around the difficulties of administering it. My midwife said it didn’t seem to be available in Canterbury at the moment. I’m sure she’ll make sure I get it if I insist though.

Yay Blood Group results came back, and no antibodies so that's good news, means there was no sensitization from my termination.
All I have to do know is keep an eye out for any bleeding etc.

NikkiB wrote: It certainly isn’t my intention to scare you, but I want to inform you about your rights. It has been passed by the Ministry of Health that as a prophylactic treatment, all rhesus negative women are eligible for Anti-D vaccinations at 28 weeks gestation and 32 weeks gestation in addition to having Anti-D after birth and after any obvious bleeds. Some DHB’s may offer this for free, while others may require you to pay (I’ve been told that each injection costs approximately $120 each). I know this may sound a lot, but this may help you decide. My story…. During my first pregnancy I had a silent bleed (this is where there is no obvious bleeding) sometime after 28 weeks gestation. Through a routine blood test at 37 weeks pregnant, it was discovered that I had already built up antibodies. It was too late for me to have Anti-D to reverse the antibodies – it doesn’t work like that. My antibodies were then passing the placenta and attacking my son’s red blood cells. Thankfully, I was late into my pregnancy, so did not cause too much concern for my son. My husband and I decided to have another baby. Pretty much through the whole pregnancy my antibodies, that were doubling at an amazing rate, were attacking our son’s red blood cells. We went through a high-risk obstetrician having at least 2 scans a week from 18 weeks gestation (at a cost to the Health System of about $120 a scan). I also had full day IV treatments to help stop my antibodies attacking our son (at a cost of about $6,000 – I had about 7 treatments - once again at the Health System’s expense). Our son also had two blood transfusion whilst in utero – lord knows how much that cost!). After much heartbreak and tears, none of this worked and our son was born at 26 weeks gestation. Because of his extreme prematurity, he has a list of problems. He spent the first 5 months of his life in hospital. Imagine the huge cost to the Health System, not to mention the emotional cost to our immediate and extended family (including friends). When I was pregnant back in 2007, it was not policy to offer Anti-D to Rhesus negative women at 28 & 32 weeks gestation, apparently the cost was too great. If we were given the option, we would certainly have funded it ourselves. The kicker is, that we were not made aware about the anti-D vaccine. No messages of sympathy please, we are very very lucky to have our little boy with us, my DH and I just want to stop this happening to other people.

It is 'normal', well, was 'normal', not to be offered anti-d until after baby was born or if you have had any obvious bleeds. Now anti-d should be offered to RH- women at 28 & 32 weeks. If you did have any antibodies from your previous pregnancies, then they would have shown at the bloods done at the beginning of your pregnancy. Hope this helps.

PixieL wrote: Miss A are you sure? I thought it was standard practice to give anti-D to RH neg women after birth.

i checked with her at my last appointment and apparently I did have it after birth - was so zonked out after the section that I had no idea! Not having anything til after the next apparently. Not that i'll be having anymore kids however.

That's really disappointing PixieL As a RH- women, its your right to get Anti-D. Could you make a complaint to someone at the hospital? Personally, I'm not one to complain and don't like doing it, but it can be a way to get want you want????

Sorry to hear you've broken your foot, you poor thing Hope you have a incident free pregnancy from here on in.

PixieL, I've got no official documentation, however, we have been advised by the Minister of Health and our local DHB that the pilot to implement prophylactic antenatal anti D to all RH- pregnant women was expected to finish in October/December 2009 and that after the pilot has been run, the Ministry has requested that all DHB's to commence prophylactic administraton for antenatal Anti D early in 2010.

Maybe there has been a delay in the pilot?? Perhaps you could contact your local DHB to find out what their stand is on this??

To be honest, my DH wrote, what seemed like, a mountain of letters, to get the answers we were looking for, that anti D was being offered (paid for or not) to RH- pregnant women. We have not gone that step further to make sure that it is being implemented. We would be deeply disappointed to learn that it hasn't been implemented yet. However, we have had to let go, for our own sanity. The aim to my thread was to spread the word so it could avoid others from developing antibodies, when there is/should be a system in place to stop this from happening.

So sorry I can't help you anymore. Good luck, I hope you get the right answer from your local DHB.

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