Rh Negitive

My blood group is 'O Rh Negitive'. Just wondering if anyone else is Rh Negitive and if they've had to have that special needle in the first pregnancy incase the baby is Rh positive? If so, how many times did you have to have it, if at all? and if anyone knows the name of it as i've forgotten.

Do you mean the anti D injection Tegan ??

Love :smt049

Tegan if you do mean the anti D my answer is yes. I had it with each of my pregancies and m/c's and I'm sure I'll get it again. Usually you get it after you have given birth or after any spotting during pregnancy.

I'm O negative too - an although the procedures seem to vary, its generally accepted that you have the injections at 28 & 34 weeks (I think thats right) as well as after the baby is born. We actually talked about this last night in antinatal classes, and I was the only one in the class of 8 or so pregnant woman who was rhesus negative.

Yes i did mean the anti D. So do you have it just as a precaution or what? Coz i am not sure whether my DP is Rh Negitive or positive. I don't want to end up getting it if i don't actually have to coz im terrified of needles!

It doesnt matter what your partner is, apparantly they can never be sure that your partner is the Dad. Its a precautionary thing. If you were to develop the antibodies it can endanger babies you carry in further pregnancies, so its just something you have to have. Stock up on choccy and other comfort foods!

I am Rh positive so I didn't need the injection but my SIL is negative and she had to have it every pregnancy. It's just one of those things you will have to have, but believe me, after giving birth having the needle will seem minor, and you will be too distracted with your beautiful bub to worry about it!

Bon

I'am not sure when you posted. But am answering it! I had a miscarriage in October of 2005, it was my first pregnancy. Come to find out I was RH Negitive. I had to have a D&C done. I received the Rhogam shot before I had the D&C. I found out I was pregnant again in Aug. of 2006. I received the first shot around 27 weeks and then again the day after I delivered him.

Wow i posted this over 3 years ago lol. Thanks for answering though!

Turns out my DH is negative too so all i needed was a medical certificate for the hospital to say he was and they didn't give me the injections.

But with my second pregnancy (and recent m/c) i did have them as i went to a different hospital and apparently there is still a slight chance bub can be positive even though both parents are negative.

There is no single way the baby can be positive if the parents are both negative. I'm telling you from a point of simple genetics.

The reason they do it is because they are never 100% sure that the father is really the father, and they don't want to women to be put in an awkward position. If you are 100% (and I'm not saying You, more the general you), sure that the father is negative, i would flat out refuse to have it. There is a risk (very very minimal), as it is a blood product, and hence comes with any of the associated risks with blood transfusions etc. If you husband is negative, there is NO REASON AT ALL to have it, there is no risk to the baby, so you are having a completely unnecessary injection that puts you at a slight risk.

I'm A-, but my husband is positive, so i have it during my pregnancy and afterwards (they test the babies blood types, but i know from looking at the blood types of DH family that there is very little chance that my kids won't be positive). I believe (my personal opinion here), that Rh neg women (with positive partners) should have anti-D, as the risk is very small.

But that being said, if my husband was negative, i would tell them no way, and then i would ask them to explain their interesting concepts of basic genetics ;)

Why is it you say that the baby cannot possibly be positive if both parents are negative?

If both parents are negative then there is no way the baby could be positive

Rhesus factor is a recessive trait, which means that a child needs to inherit 2 recessive (negative) genes from each parent to be negative.

Each parent has 2 genes, and there are 3 options about what this could be

1) if the 2 genes are neg & neg, then the parent will have a neg blood type.
2) If the 2 genes are neg and positive, then the parent will be a positive blood type, as the positive is dominant over the negative (we call these heterozygous).
3) If they are both positive, then the parent will be positive.

When conception occurs, each parent donates half of their DNA, so one of each gene for every single gene in your body. Hence you get half from your father, half from your mother. So in the case above:

1) only option is to donate a negative gene
2) can either donate a positive or negative
3) can only donate a positive gene.

With option 2, if they donated a negative, and the other one donated negative (even though parent is a positive blood type), then the child is negative. If either parent donates a positive gene, the child is positive.

But with option one, if you are both negative, the only option you have to donate a negative gene, hence your child will be negative no matter what.

The only way a child of both negative children can be positive is if enough of the DNA mutates to change over to a positive gene. Seeing as it isn't just 1 mutation that changes this, we are talking huge amounts of mutations, and they have to be exactly in the right spot (out of the options of 100s of 1000s of spots on the gene), the chances of this happening are soooo remotely small (like a boing 747 being in pieces and the wind coming through and putting it back together in a completely working way), that they would never give you anti-D based on this.

The reason you got from the hospital was a load of rubbish, they either were trying to fool you into having it (based on their policy of disregarding fathers blood type in case they are not the father... but you have the right to refuse), or they have no understanding what-so-ever of basic genetics.

Clear as mud?? :)

I have to disagree on #3 then because both my parents were positive but i am negative...

On that note though how stupid of a reputable hospital to say that to me. Plus it was one of the birth centre midwives.

Yael, PMSL....reading your post I felt as though I was whisked back into yr11 biology & you exp it so well.
I agree with you 100%. I didn't even know what blood type I was until pregnant with bubs, the doc said that's often how most women find out LOL....they never asked what DH was, nor was he tested. I had to have the injections & unfortunatly had 4 all up. I don't even know what blood type my parents are, hmmmm perhaps I'll ask.

Antheia - your parents would have to be number 2. They have a positive and negative gene each, so there blood type is positive (as positive trumps negative), but they could still donate a negative gene each to you, hence you are negative.

Erin - i did a science degree in genetics at uni.... I developed a curiosity tracking blood types in both sides of the family, trying to work out if everyone was +/- or +/+

Yael is exactly right, if both parents have the same 2 genes there is no way that the child can be the opposite, it's just not possible.

what am i rare or something? lol obviously they have given me negative genes but it still doesnt make sense that it can happen if positive is the more dominate gene. Shouldn't they have still give me the positive even if they did have a negative in there somewhere?

I was never good a science lol!

No, they would have a dominant gene (positive), and a recessive gene (negative). Because they have one of each their blood type is positive because that is dominant, but they still have the negative recessive gene. They each pass on one of the pair to you (whether u have dominant or recessive doesn't have any effect on which one is passed on, it's random). So, they must have both passed on their recessive negative genes to you.
Does that make any sense? lol

yeah a bit. But still all very weird! lol

I wonder why they would tell me that just coz DH and I are negative that we can still have a positive baby if thats not the case?