# When did Rh immune-globulin shots become available for pregnant women? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 3, 2010, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-rh-immune-globulin-shots-become-available-for-pregnant-women/527517 "2010-02-03T15:02:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-rh-immune-globulin-shots-become-available-for-pregnant-women/527517/1 "2010-02-03T15:02:10Z")
I was born with an RH-positive blood type. My brother was born a few years later and had to have transfusions after birth because of the antibodies that by RH-negative mom developed. Today, of course, that’s a thing of the past, because pregnant women get Rh immune-globulin shots to prevent them from developing those antibodies. When did that become an approved practice? ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-rh-immune-globulin-shots-become-available-for-pregnant-women/527517/2 "2010-02-03T15:07:19Z")
From [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rh_disease#History_of_medical_advances_in_Rh_disease): > [@](#): > > Clinical trials set up by Dr. Pollack in 42 clinical centers in the US, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Italy, and Australia confirmed their hypothesis, and the vaccine was finally approved in England and the United States in 1968. The FDA approved the drug under the name RhoGAM, with a fixed dose of 300 µG, to be given within three days postpartum. There being no known harm done by delaying the dosage for a week or more after birth, Ortho asked the FDA to grant permission for it to be given without a postpartum time restriction. In addition, Dr. John M. Bowman, one of the researchers at the University of Manitoba, and Dr Freda pushed to allow antepartum use. All of this was subsequently granted. Within a year or so, the antibody had been injected with great success into more than 500,000 women. Time magazine picked it as one of the top ten medical achievements of the 1960s. By 1973, it was estimated that in the US alone, over 50,000 babies’ lives had been saved. The use of Rh immune globulin to prevent the disease in babies of Rh negative mothers has become standard practice, and the disease, which used to claim the lives of 10,000 babies each year in the US alone, has been virtually eradicated in the developed world. In 1980 Drs. Pollack, Gorman, Freda, and Finn shared the Albert Lasker Award for their work on Rh disease. ---
**Author:** ![Perciful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Perciful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perciful)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2010, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-rh-immune-globulin-shots-become-available-for-pregnant-women/527517/3 "2010-02-04T13:44:25Z")
Sadly, I had a Great Aunt that lost 10 babies due to the RH factor. They were all born in the late 30 and early forties before RhoGam was invented.