RH negative women and RH positive husbands? page

[Rasputina]

I have A-negative blood and my husband has B-positive blood. I have had several miscarriages, and have been told by the docs that I need to get a RhoGam shot as soon as I know I pregnant. Are there any successful RH Negative/Positive parents here? How soon did you get the shot?

[Ethereal]

Wow I have never heard of this before. I am sorry for your miscarriages, I have had 4 myself before the birth of my son. I don't know where you are but I had wonderful private health care and never was my husband tested to see what his blood type was? Hmmmm maybe we were asked and he told them but I don't remember that, we also had several tests, perhaps they just tested the blood group without us knowing. I have spoken to loads of woman about miscarriage and again I have never had this problem come up as a reason for miscarriage. It does seem a little strange, there are so many A- and B+ people out there and surely they have had babies! Whilst is is becoming more common for couples to not be able to have children it is still pretty rare that a couple is told they can never have a baby.

For what it's worth I ended up having acupuncture and taking Chinese herbal medicine which the practitioner made up especially for me, I got pregnant the next cycle and had a wonderful super speedy (2.5hr labor) 100% natural waterbirth. By that I mean zero intervention and zero drugs. It was amazing!

[Rasputina]

The RH negative/positive factor is very common. My body fights the RH-positive fetus like a virus/invader. It's very distressing.

[marthat]

I and my brother are products of an Rh- woman and Rh+ man. And I am O-, hubby is B+. We have 2 boys, first one was B-, second was O+. So it can be done.

Normally the mother's blood system and the baby's blood systems never come in direct contact, only interacting across membranes such as the placenta. The problem, as I understand it, arises if there is contact between the maternal Rh- blood and baby's Rh+ blood. This "contact" can cause the mother's body to develop antibodies to the Rh factor present in the baby's blood. The first baby is not at risk, but subsequent babies, if they are RH + and the "contact" happens again, can be attacked by the mother's immune system.

It is possible that with one of your early miscarriages, that some sort of blood contact occurred. I'm not a doctor, just a health care worker with a decent background in physiology and the personal experience of my own pregnancies. All the best to you in the future.

[onalark]

I have A-negative blood and my husband has B-positive blood. I have had several miscarriages [...]

Oh man. Having just gotten over my first (anemia! I have beaten you!) you have my extreme, heartfelt sympathies! That can't be easy.

[Sabine]

I am a negative, my husband positive, and all our children have been negatives. I had the shots after each of my deliveries, just in case, and also after my two miscarriages. No shots once I knew I was pregnant with 2,3,4, and 5, though. I was told that getting the shot right after delivery took care of that. I was under the impression that the shot could be given ahead of time, if you knew you were wanting to get pregnant. (Can't remember where I got this information, though, may be just smoke.) I would ask, though, especially as you have had miscarriages and there might have been some blood mixing.

[Kaylee99]

My mom had the Rh factor-she had to get the shot as soon as she knew she was pregnant or she miscarried. Strangely I got my Dad's blood type (positive) while my brothers both got my Mom's (negative).

[KV8R]

My wife and I are opposite blood types and she got the shot within a few weeks of being pregnant. It's only worked one out of 5 or 6 times though, all the other times resulted in miscarriages, anywhere from the first month to the sixth.

[Mud Flinger]

I have had this issue also and my understanding is that the shot prevents you from making antibodies. The docs did a blood test on me to check for these antibodies since they will caused problems for the Mom besides just loosing the baby. Ask the docs for this blood test (if you haven't already) and try getting the shot just before you get preggers. I bet if you google it and do your own research, you can learn lots more than the people here know. I have found that doctors do a lot more and listen better to a knowledgable patient - maybe you can get a referal to a specialist this way also if your doc feels that you know more about it than he/she does. Best of luck!