To all rhesus negative women – A Must Rea

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   It certainly isn’t my intention to scare you, but I want to inform you about your rights.

It has been passed by the Ministry of Health that as a prophylactic treatment, all rhesus negative women are eligible for Anti-D vaccinations at 28 weeks gestation and 32 weeks gestation in addition to having Anti-D after birth and after any obvious bleeds.  Some DHB’s may offer this for free, while others may require you to pay (I’ve been told that each injection costs approximately $120 each).  I know this may sound a lot, but this may help you decide.

My story….

During my first pregnancy I had a silent bleed (this is where there is no obvious bleeding) sometime after 28 weeks gestation.  Through a routine blood test at 37 weeks pregnant, it was discovered that I had already built up antibodies.  It was too late for me to have Anti-D to reverse the antibodies – it doesn’t work like that.  My antibodies were then passing the placenta and attacking my son’s red blood cells.  Thankfully, I was late into my pregnancy, so did not cause too much concern for my son.  

My husband and I decided to have another baby.  Pretty much through the whole pregnancy my antibodies, that were doubling at an amazing rate, were attacking our son’s red blood cells.  We went through a high-risk obstetrician having at least 2 scans a week from 18 weeks gestation (at a cost to the Health System of about $120 a scan).  I also had full day IV treatments to help stop my antibodies attacking our son (at a cost of about $6,000 – I had about 7 treatments - once again at the Health System’s expense).  Our son also had two blood transfusion whilst in utero – lord knows how much that cost!).  After much heartbreak and tears, none of this worked and our son was born at 26 weeks gestation.  Because of his extreme prematurity, he has a list of problems. He spent the first 5 months of his life in hospital.  Imagine the huge cost to the Health System, not to mention the emotional cost to our immediate and extended family (including friends).  

When I was pregnant back in 2007, it was not policy to offer Anti-D to Rhesus negative women at 28 & 32 weeks gestation, apparently the cost was too great.  If we were given the option, we would certainly have funded it ourselves. The kicker is, that we were not made aware about the anti-D vaccine.

No messages of sympathy please, we are very very lucky to have our little boy with us, my DH and I just want to stop this happening to other people.