93: Negative Blood Types and the RhoGAM Shot

Your blood type is something that is determined by your genes, and until you need a blood transfusion your blood type doesn’t really have any affect on your health. If you get a blood transfusion it is important to match the donors blood type with your blood type so your body does not reject it. Having Rh negative blood isn’t a concern until pregnancy. If you are Rh negative, and your baby is Rh positive then you have an Rh incompatibility. This means that there is a mismatch between the blood of you and the blood of your baby. When your Rh negative blood is exposed to your baby’s Rh positive blood, your blood reacts by producing antibodies that can attack and destroy your baby’s Rh positive blood cells. To avoid the complications that come along with this rho(D) immune globulin, commonly referred to by the brand name RhoGAM, is given at various points during your pregnancy or after birth. This episode explores all of the risks, benefits, and considerations surrounding Rh compatibility with your baby and the rho(D) immune globulin or RhoGAM shot.

Show notes: http://pregnancypodcast.com/episode93/

Thank you to Aeroflow for sponsoring this episode. Aeroflow is a company that helps you get a breast pump through your health insurance. There can be some hoops to jump through to get a breast pump through your insurance but Aeroflow does all of this for you and makes it so easy. All you need to do is fill out a form that takes just a minute and they will contact your health insurance company and work out all the details, then they will get in touch with you to help you choose the right breast pump. To get started on ordering your pump go to http://pregnancypodcast.com/breastpump/

Thank you to Zahler for their support of this episode. Zahler makes a high quality prenatal vitamin that has the active form of folate, that I refer after all of the research I have read on folic acid, plus it has omega 3s and DHA. This is the prenatal vitamin I take and the one I recommend. Zahler was very generous and gave me a promo code I can share with you so you can save 25% off when you buy a month supply on Amazon. To order them today go to http://amzn.to/2nOuFVB and enter the promo code PREPOD25 when you checkout.