One of the antigens of the blood group is the Rh factor. Its presence suggests that your rhesus is positive. If there is no antigen, Rh is negative, and this can have a serious impact on your future pregnancy. So, people who have a positive Rhesus may not even remember about it, whereas a woman with negative blood rhesus should know that during pregnancy, there may be a threat of Rh-conflict.
Rhesus-conflict is manifested as a result of the ingress of foreign erythrocytes into the human blood, which are carried by the proteins of the Rhesus system. For the immune system, they are foreign, and as a result, the process of producing antibodies begins. When pregnancy leads to him, there is a negative rhesus in a woman and a positive child's father. All other combinations do not lead to Rhesus-conflict.
However, even with a negative Rhesus, a full pregnancy planning is possible for the mother. First, competent prevention allows to nullify the consequences of Rh-conflict, and, secondly, a negative Rh factor, even in the second pregnancy, not all lead to its development.
Rhesus antibodies are those compounds of the structure of proteins that are produced in the maternal body upon ingestion of Rh-positive red blood cells of the fetus. When they are found in the mother's bloodstream, a diagnosis is made-Rh-sensitization. This is revealed when a spontaneous or artificial termination of pregnancy occurs with a negative rhesus in a woman. Also antibodies can appear during the first pregnancy, when the blood of a child with a positive rhesus gets into the bloodstream of a woman with a negative rhesus after birth.
In some cases, sensitization is possible in the early stages, since antibodies appear in the fetal blood, starting from the 7th week of pregnancy. Although often the first pregnancy in women with a negative Rh factor can occur without complications, if previously there was no sensitization of the body.
Rhesus sensitization can develop, in the case of manual removal of the placenta, and also if the first birth was accompanied by heavy bleeding or the woman giving birth was cesarean. And, of course, this happens in the case of the second (third) pregnancy with a negative rhesus in the mother. This is due to the high probability that many Rhesus-positive red blood cells can enter the mother's bloodstream. And accordingly, Rhesus antibodies will start to form.
Due to the fact that the immune system of the mother with negative rhesus during pregnancy occurs with fetal red blood cells (Rh-positive) for the first time, antibodies are not produced in such large quantities. And in 10% of women after the first pregnancy there is an immunization. Thus, if a woman with negative Rhesus avoided Rhesus immunization, then at the second pregnancy the probability of her appearance will again be 10%. Therefore, it becomes important with a negative rhesus in a woman before the onset of a second pregnancy to pass an analysis in order to detect the presence of antibodies in the blood. By this time, she should already be registered with a medical institution. In the subsequent there, and you can conduct an additional examination.
Also, with a negative rhesus before planning a second pregnancy, it is necessary to find out what the Rh factor is your first child.
This complication, like a stagnant pregnancy in women with negative rhesus, most often occurs during the first trimester of pregnancy (up to 14 weeks). Antenatal fetal death after 28 weeks is also possible.
Among the measures taken during the pregnancy of a woman with negative rhesus, it is possible to include, in addition to the procedure that facilitates the purification of antibodies, also intrauterine blood transfusion to the child.