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If your red blood cells contain a substance known as rhesus factor, you are
rhesus, or Rh, positive. If a woman who is Rh negative conceives a baby by
a man who is Rh positive and the baby, in turn, is Rh positive, the woman may
become sensitized to the Rh positive blood at eh time of delivery. If a
subsequent baby is also Rh positive, the mother's body recognizes the baby's
"foreign" blood and produces antibodies that attack the baby.
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First pregnancy
Rh positive blood from the baby enters the mother's bloodstream.
After first baby
Antibodies develop in the mother to combat Rh positive blood and afterward
remain.
Subsequent pregnancies
Antibodies enter subsequent Rh + baby's blood, causing rhesus hemolytic
disease.
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