Rh sensitization
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Rh sensitization
Rh sensitization is an antibody response that may occur when a woman with Rh-negative blood has been exposed to blood from her Rh-positive fetus. Once she is sensitized, her immune system can make antibodies that can destroy Rh-positive red blood cells.
An Rh factor (Rh antigen) is one of the markers on the surface of red blood cells that the immune system can recognize. A person whose blood contains the Rh factor is Rh-positive. A person whose blood does not contain the Rh factor is Rh-negative.
Most women who become sensitized do so during childbirth, when their blood mixes with Rh-positive fetal blood. However, blood mixing sometimes occurs during a miscarriage, an abortion, or an injury (especially to the woman's abdomen).
Rh sensitization is no danger to the pregnant woman and usually is no harm to the first Rh-positive fetus. However, future Rh-positive fetuses are in danger of having their red blood cells destroyed before birth by the pregnant woman's immune system. This danger can usually be prevented by giving the Rh-negative woman an Rh immune globulin injection (such as RhoGAM) at 24 to 28 weeks of pregnancy, and after delivery if the baby is Rh-positive.
An Rh-negative woman can only become pregnant with an Rh-positive fetus if the father is Rh-positive.
Credits
| Author | Jeannette Curtis |
| Author | Caroline Rea, RN, BS, MS |
| Editor | Kathleen M. Ariss, MS |
| Editor | Susan Van Houten, RN, BSN, MBA |
| Associate Editor | Tracy Landauer |
| Associate Editor | Pat Truman, MATC |
| Primary Medical Reviewer | Patrice Burgess, MD - Family Medicine |
| Primary Medical Reviewer | Adam Husney, MD - Family Medicine |
| Primary Medical Reviewer | Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine |
| Last Updated | May 25, 2007 |
| Last updated: | May 25, 2007 |
|---|---|
| Author: | Caroline Rea, RN, BS, MS |
| Reviewed By: | Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine |
| Editors: | Susan Van Houten, RN, BSN, MBA, Pat Truman, MATC |
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