Q: My wife is 7 months pregnant now and for the first time. We had not checked the blood group initially thinking that her blood group was O+. But last week during a routine blood check up it was confirmed as O -. I know this was a mistake on our part. Now I have heard that there are some injections which my wife should have taken when she was in her 3rd month of pregnancy.But our doctor has not told us anything about this. What she indicated is that in case the blood group of the baby is Rh positive then the mother needs to take an injection. Can you please help me regarding this?

A:In any pregnancy, routine blood tests are done to ensure that the mother is healthy. These can be done now, if not already done. ABO & Rh blood groups (Rh positive & negative) of mother and father are done to assess baby's chances of being Rh positive or negative. Other simple tests are done to see that the mother has no Rh antibody in her blood that can cause problems during pregnancy and can harm the baby. Since this is a first pregnancy and, provided the mother has had no miscarriges, abortions earlier, chances of any problems arising in baby, because of mother being O Rh negative is slim. After delivery, if the baby is Rh positive, the mother is injected Rh Immune Globulin 250 ug - 300 ug, to prevent formationof Rh antibody in the mother, to prevent problems in the next pregnancy.