what is RH factor in pregnancy?

Answer 1

RH factor refers to your blood type, for instance my blood is O positive (positive being the RH). My mothers blood was O neg, my dad O pos. As my parents had 5 kids and 4 of us are O pos, my mom was put at risk during her pregnancies because the babies that had a positive RH factor were attempting to damage my mothers body and she had to have some sort of "treatment" to keep herself and the babies healthy.

My understanding is that women with negative RH factors are at risk if the babies are positive RH. Don't know why it doesn't work the other way

Answer 2

I am RH Negative and have had three children. The way it was for me was that they did not advise then to have many babies. If the baby's blood is RH positive, then your RH negative blood looks at it as something to fight, like a virus. When you have the baby, then if your body has built up antibodies, like it does with every RH positive baby, then by the time the third comes along, then the body wants to attack it. I am not sure when this happens, maybe through the umbilical cord, or at birth, but they have to keep check on you to make sure your blood is not building up too many antibodies to the baby's blood. It might be that now they can take the baby's blood type through the womb, but I don't know, as it was over 40 yrs ago for me. If the baby was RH negative like you, it probably is not that big of a deal. If you know that you have the RH negative blood and this is your first baby, and assuming it has RH positive, then you probably do not want to be too worried, but you should discuss this with your doctor. I think what they will do is just take blood work and see how you are doing until the birth. If, back then, the woman was building up too many antibodies, they would probably take the baby C-section. That never happened to me because I only had three, but at that time, they did not encourage more than that.

Answer 3

Same as answer above, but if a woman is Rh negative and the baby is Rh positive, the Rh antibodies can combine in the woman's blood and it can affect the next baby. That's why if you are Rh negative, you should have a RhoGam shot at about 28 weeks. If the baby is born positive, then you will have another after the birth. I had to have them with all 3 pregnancies and they don't hurt too bad. I had to have them after the birth of 2 of my kids.