Anti-D Explained

Book excerpt: Fifty years ago, we learned that giving a medicine called Anti-D to childbearing women with rhesus negative blood could help protect their future babies from an age-old disease. But the same research which showed this also raised some tantalising questions, to which we still don't know all the answers. Today, rhesus negative women are offered Anti-D at several points during their pregnancy and birth journeys. Many would like to know more than they can read in the standard information leaflets on this topic. Many have questions about whether they really need this medicine. This book has been written to explain the issues, to answer key questions and to share information about what we do and do not know about Anti-D and related topics from research evidence and current thinking. Dr Sara Wickham is an author, speaker and researcher who has been writing and lecturing about Anti-D and pregnancy and birth related topics for more than twenty years. "Sara Wickham has found an original way to raise judicious yet unusual questions. Thanks to her exceptional capacity for lateral thinking she has developed the art of 'hitting the nail on the head'. The genuine pioneers are those who raise the right questions at the right time." Dr Michel Odent, Founder, Primal Health Research Centre. Foreword by Dr Michel Odent.