Informed Consent: RhoGAM

When it comes to RhoGAM it was sold to us as a wonder drug that would save countless babies born to Rh- women where the partner is Rh+ thus giving the possibility of a Rh+ baby, and their blood “mixing” when the Rh- mom’s blood. (We’ll discuss in another post)

It is often not even discussed between “care provider” and “patient” it’s just part of their routine prenatal visit between 26-28 weeks into the pregnancy. (an arbitrary window really, if we want to play by the establishment’s rules, sensitization can happen at “any” point in pregnancy apparently.)

The prenatal visit between those weeks it’s assumed that a Rh- mother will routinely get the RhoGAM injection - with little to no explanation of what it is, what it’s made from, what it is for, and no consideration for IF she wants to have it administered. 

Informed consent is something that YOU, the mother provide TO the “care provider”. They are supposed to provide you with the possible risks, not just the possible benefits before they conduct any treatment - RhoGAM injection included. 

This is where YOU, the mother need to do your due diligence and ASK QUESTIONS. Come prepared to your prenatal visits, especially if you are working within the system and the “care providers” that work within them. 

There is a BIG difference between “consent” and “informed consent”. 

Let’s be the generation that brings back investing more time and energy into nourishing ourselves pre-conception, prenatally, postpartum, and beyond over the gender reveal and nursery designs. 

Things that you probably didn’t know about RhoGAM:

One thing that I didn’t note is that RhoGAM is made from human blood (that’s why it carries the risk of transmitting infectious diseases *KNOWN AND UNKNOWN*)

If you are pregnant and are Rh- with a Rh+ partner, I can not stress enough you getting your hands on Anti-D Explained and or Anti-D in Midwifery (out of print but find a copy!) both by Sara Wickham. She provides so much valuable information that I wish I had during my pregnancies - knowing what I know now, I absolutely  would have made a more informed decision than I did. 

This is part of the informed consent conversation. You cannot say that you provided your OB or midwife with informed consent unless you knew this information prior to receiving this injection. After at least two injections of RhoGAM (I can not recall if I received a dose right after birth with my first) from two different pregnancies I can in full integrity say that I did not provide a single ounce of informed consent to the midwives that administered them. 

So who is to blame? Both the midwives, AND ME. 

They (two different midwives from two different pregnancies) did not inform me of ANY of this, and I blindly trusted that because I was being tended to by midwives that they would not do anything that the medical model would (I mean that’s why I was not birthing in the hospital in the first place ——— ). 

All the facts that I listed above I was not aware of when I consented to the injection - and I would almost bet that you weren’t aware of them either and if you were - did you research for yourself or did your “care provider” tell you any of this?

The medical model created the need for RhoGAM (anti-D) in the first place, then turned around to sell us the solution…

In 1933, 35% of all births occurred in hospitals; by 1955 this had risen to 95%. The successful propaganda stating that lay women / midwives were not as qualified to attend births as these relatively new doctors were. These doctors (read surgeons) saw birth as the final untapped market for bringing money into the hospitals and started a slander campaign that effectively moved almost all births into the hospitals. 

This means that physiologic births made up for less than 5% of birth during this time. 

Why is that so important? 

Because during this time they practiced “knock them out, drag it out” “twilight sleep births” and so much more that attributes to transplacental hemorrhage (amongst other forms of physical trauma) - the very thing that so many health care practitioners attribute to fetal and maternal blood mixing. 

This is where we start to see a rise in infant mortality in subsequent births to Rh- mothers with Rh+ babies. This is where they start blaming our physiology that something is wrong with our bodies, our babies, the way we birth, and it needs fixing and fast! 

By the 60’s we see that there is a new wonder drug “anti-D” (RhoGAM) that is here to save the day so the obstetrical abuse can continue, with potentially less fetal mortality rates because they injected a blood product to trick the body into lowering its defense mechanisms to not attack the baby that it growing. This is also where we could have a much deeper conversation on women being taught about our cycles, and women having the autonomy to say “no” to their husbands PERIOD, and especially when she knows she is ovulating and she does not want to get pregnant again.

This is important because the fetal deaths did not happen in baby number 2, or 3, and maybe not even 4 - it was in larger families because the mother’s body would make more anti-bodies with EVERY pregnancy.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, as it is a very loaded conversation, for such a small niche of women in the world.