Guest guest Posted December 6, 2007 Report Share Posted December 6, 2007 Hi, Does anyone have any information about Rhogam shots?I had my boys at the hospital,but then I found a midwife who delivers at home and had my next two babies with her and did not get the shot. Now I am pregnant again and because of insurance I need to go to the hospital. Does anyone have any information relating to this shot.I read somewhere that the Rhogam shot was only an unecessary vaccine. I have tried to contact the midwife but no luck.Thanks.Kris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 8, 2007 Report Share Posted December 8, 2007 RhoGAM is not a vaccine. It is an immune globulin, which is derived from human blood. It is strongly recommended for pregnant women who have a blood type that is Rh-negative (as in O-negative, A-negative, B-negative, or AB-negative) AND whose partner is Rh-positive (O-positive, A-positive, B-positive, or AB-positive). Because the Rh-positive gene is dominant, it is highly likely that the baby would be Rh-positive as well. If both the mother and the father are Rh-negative, then the baby will be Rh-negative. If the mother is positive and the father is negative, then this is not a problem either. If an Rh-negative mother is exposed to her baby's Rh-positive blood, her body may mount an immune response to it because her body sees the Rh-positive blood as a foreign invader and will attack it. This can be very bad for the baby inside! There are a few ways that the mother could become exposed to her baby's blood: abdominal trauma like a car accident or fall during pregnancy where the placenta is damaged, amniocentesis, external cephalic version (abdominal manipulation to turn a breech baby), and during birth (doesn't matter if it's vaginal or cesarean), which is the most likely event in which the mother's blood can mix with the baby's blood via the placenta. The research shows that somewhere between 3-14% of Rh-negative women will mount an immune response to their baby's Rh-positive blood if exposed. This may be a relatively small risk, but the consequences can be devastating. The pregnancy in which the mother becomes " sensitized " is not likely to be affected (unless the sensitization occurs in early pregnancy), but subsequent pregnancies are at a much higher risk because the mother's body will already have antibodies circulating. Risks to the fetus in this situation include mild to severe anemia, jaundice, heart failure, and death. RhoGAM is routinely administered to Rh-negative mothers at about 28 weeks and is believed to be protective for the remainder of the pregnancy. Once the baby is born, blood from the umbilical cord can be collected and sent off to the lab or typed by the midwife to determine the baby's blood type. If the baby is Rh-positive, then another dose of RhoGAM is recommended within 3 days postpartum. If the baby is Rh-negative, then the mother would not need the shot. RhoGAM has the effect of " fooling " the mother's immune system into *not *mounting an immune response to the baby's blood. Because it wears off within a few months, it is recommended to go through this process in each pregnancy. There is a blood test that can be done to check whether or not a woman has already been sensitized to the Rh factor, and that is called an antibody screen. This is part of the routine prenatal panel of tests that is done for every pregnant woman at the beginning of prenatal care. I hope this helps, and please feel free to contact me if you have more questions. -- *Wendy Hughes, CPM, LDM Professional Home Birth Midwife Infant CranioSacral Therapy* Vivante Midwifery Portland, OR www.VivanteMidwifery.com On Dec 5, 2007 7:10 PM, rockcreekherbs <rockcreekherbs wrote: > Hi, > Does anyone have any information about Rhogam shots?I had my boys at > the hospital,but then I found a midwife who delivers at home and had my > next two babies with her and did not get the shot. Now I am pregnant > again and because of insurance I need to go to the hospital. Does > anyone have any information relating to this shot.I read somewhere that > the Rhogam shot was only an unecessary vaccine. I have tried to contact > the midwife but no luck.Thanks.Kris > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 10, 2007 Report Share Posted December 10, 2007 Wendy, thanks for that wonderful explanation of RhoGam, I was never totally clear on that before. Vicky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 11, 2007 Report Share Posted December 11, 2007 Vicky, I found your information on rhogam just what I needed. But could you continue on the the RH-factor part? Claudia **************************************See AOL's top rated recipes (http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 11, 2007 Report Share Posted December 11, 2007 Claudia, that was Wendy who gave the great explanation about RhoGam. I'm sure you'll hear from her shortly. Vicky - DCBirthingHands ayurveda Tuesday, December 11, 2007 5:43 AM PerinatalAyurveda forum Re: Rhogam Vicky, I found your information on rhogam just what I needed. But could you continue on the the RH-factor part? Claudia **************************************See AOL's top rated recipes (http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 12, 2007 Report Share Posted December 12, 2007 Hi Claudia -- Could you be more specific about what you'd like to know about the Rh-factor? I'm not sure of the direction in which you'd like me to continue. -- *Wendy Hughes, CPM, LDM Professional Home Birth Midwife Infant CranioSacral Therapy* Vivante Midwifery Portland, OR www.VivanteMidwifery.com On Dec 11, 2007 5:43 AM, <DCBirthingHands wrote: > Vicky, > > I found your information on rhogam just what I needed. But could you > continue on the the RH-factor part? > > Claudia > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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