What should be done to prevent rhesus disease?
At the start of a pregnancy, each woman is given a blood test to determine (among other things) whether you are Rhesus positive or negative. If you are Rhesus negative, then your partner’s blood will also be tested and, if the results show that he is Rh-positive, meaning that there is a chance that the baby will be Rh-positive, you may be injected with Anti-D immunoglobulin during the pregnancy or after the birth of the baby. Being your first pregnancy, you will also have regular blood tests to ensure that yours is not a rare case where antibodies develop before the baby is born. In subsequent pregnancies, these tests are carried out to determine whether the treatment given after your previous pregnancy was actually effective. In the case of modern treatment not having been available during your first pregnancy, the blood test results will show a concentration of antibodies in your blood. The effect they are having on your developing baby can be detected through amniocentesis or by tak
