With both my last pregnancy and this one, I had an anti-D injection. If you are wondering what this is and whether you will need one as well, here’s some info on the subject.
Anti-D is not harmful to you or your baby in any way. To the contrary, it can prevent complications and even save your baby’s life in extreme cases. Basically, when the mother’s blood type is RhD-negative, and she is carrying a RhD-positive baby, there is some concern that her immune system may react to the baby’s blood as if it were a “foreign invader” and produce antibodies against it. Once these antibodies are made, they cannot be removed, and in subsequent RhD-positive pregnancies they may attack and destroy the baby’s red blood cells, causing anaemia, jaundice, liver or heart failure.
These problems can be prevented by giving RhD-negative mothers an injection of anti-D, and it is now routine procedure at about 28 weeks.