Pregnancy in Rhesus Negative Women in Kaduna, Northern Nigeria

Abstract

Objective: To determine the incidence, review some anamnestic and bio-demographic characteristics of the women and pregnancy outcome. Study design: An eight year retrospective review of pregnancies in Rhesus- negative women in a University teaching hospital. Results: There were a total of 10572 deliveries and 76 rhesus negative pregnancies during the period, giving an incidence of 0.7%. The Yoruba ethnic group was the highest contributor of patients (44.73%), while the Southern minority ethnic groups the lowest contributors (3.9%). About 51% of the patients were of ABO Blood group O. Sixty four (84.2%) of the patients have had previous pregnancies and only 8(12.5%) of these received Anti- D(Rhogam) prophylaxis. Seventy two (94.7%) of the pregnancies were booked and 70.8% of them booked after 20 weeks of gestation. Antibody screening was done in 56.6% of the pregnancies. The incidence of izoimmunisation was 9.1%. Neonatal jaundice occurred in 9.2% of the babies. There was one perinatal death. Only in 19(25%) of the pregnancies was Rhogam administered after delivery. Conclusion: Rhesus negative pregnancies constitute a small number of our clinical load and the incidence of izoimmunisation appear to be very low. Setting up of dedicated Care centers to enhance good quality care and also enable a didactic pool of patients for postgraduate training is advocated. Key Words: Rhesus Negative, Pregnancies, Isoimmunisation,Incidence, Antibody screening, Anti-D Prophylaxis, Kaduna, Nigeria. [Trop J Obstet Gynaecol, 2004;21:21-23]