What are the dangers of having A negative blood that has built up antibodies ?

Question

I am pregnant with my second set of twins. My doctor called and said my body has built up antibodies from a blood transfusion I had when I gave birth to my first set in 1994. He said I will have to start seeing a high risk maternal medicine doctor for this. What are the dangers and procedures involved? Should I be worried about my well being or my babies?

Answer 1

http://www.webmd.com/content/article/4/1680_51841?src=Inktomi&condition=Health%20Topics%20A-Z

You should go read that, it won't let me cut and paste the key parts here. But here is a tiny bit:

What Is Rh Disease?

Rh disease occurs when an Rh-negative mother and her husband conceive an Rh positive child. When a few of the baby's Rh positive red blood cells cross into the mother's system via the placenta, either through a fall or accident, an amniocentesis, during a miscarriage, elective abortion, or ectopic (tubular) pregnancy, or after delivery when the placenta is removed, the mother's immune system identifies these Rh positive fetal RBCs as foreign and sets out to immediately destroy them, as well as form long-term antibodies to fight them off at a later time.

If you are an Rh negative woman and you are carrying an Rh positive child during your first pregnancy, the chance of becoming sensitized and causing a problem for the baby is small. If the baby's RBCs pass into the mother's system, her body responds by producing antibodies and she becomes "Rh sensitized." As a result, she will always carry these antibodies in her immune system.

If you carry an Rh-positive child in a subsequent pregnancy, the antibodies created by the immune system during the first exposure respond more quickly to the foreign red blood cells from the baby. These antibodies attack and destroy the baby's RBCs in the mother's circulation, but more importantly, they also cross the placenta and begin destroying the baby's red blood cells circulating in the baby's body. Remember, we all need functioning red blood cells to carry oxygen and carbon dioxide, even a baby in its mother's uterus. There are no complications for the mother in these circumstances, but there may be minor to serious complications for the baby. This is called hemolytic disease of the newborn.

Hemolytic Disease of the Newborn

Hemolytic disease of the newborn, or HDN for short, can actually be one or a group of symptoms exhibited by the baby. HDN is also termed erythroblastosis fetalis. The most severe symptom, which can be seen on ultrasound examination, is an accumulation of fluid throughout the baby's body, also called hydrops. After delivery, other symptoms may include severe newborn jaundice (yellowing of the body and skin), and a low red blood cell count (anemia).

These symptoms develop as a direct result of a mother's antibodies attaching to and destroying the baby's red blood cells, or hemolysis. Thus the name hemolytic disease of the newborn. Each subsequent pregnancy can result in more severe disease in the baby. The baby begins to compensate for the decreased number of RBCs by attempting to make lots more RBCs in a short period of time. But in the baby's bodily efforts to fix the problem it creates more problems, primarily in the liver. The baby's liver becomes enlarged and unable to handle the increased work of making new RBCs and cleaning away the debris of all the dead blood cells. At this time the baby begins to accumulate fluid in its belly, lungs, and around its heart, which can be seen easily on ultrasound. The dead red blood cells form bilirubin and result in moderate to severe jaundice in the newborn. Additionally, the baby will be anemic because the mother's antibodies have broken up so many of the red blood cells.

Answer 2

My thought is that the risk would involve you not being able to get a blood transfusion if you needed it, because your body has built up antibodies to the doner blood, and you'd need special medication to keep your body from rejecting it maybe?

Honestly Iam curious about this. I think i may google it.

Okie, from what I just read, aparently I was wrong in my original thought. I assumed that it wouldnt have anything to do with the rH factor of your blood, but thats wrong.

You can develop an rH factor from a blood tranfusion reaction which can trigger an immune response in your body against your babies if they have the opposite rH factor as you.

The risk would only be present if either or both babies has the opposite factor as you. Iam now assuming 'special care' means that you will need to have the blood type of the fetus' checked and compared with your own.

I havent found yet if the presense of the antibodies means that your body is already reacting to the fetus' with a full on immune responce (they have medication for this, so dont panic, opposing rH factor pregnancies are carried to term with the use of immune supressants and other medications), or that the factor is just simply present in the body.

You should google it like it did, its pretty interesting.

Red peach is right, they give you medication at certain intervals during pregnancy to supress the immune responce :)

Answer 3

The risk is in developing erythroblastosis fetalis which is a severe hemolytic (blood cell) disease of a fetus or newborn infant caused by the production of maternal antibodies against the fetal red blood cells, usually involving Rh incompatibility between the mother and fetus.

This condition results from the mother's antibodies crossing the placent and destroying the red blood cells of the baby. This can cause anemia in the infant or, in severe cases, death of the baby before or after birth.

Often doctors will give mothers at risk of this an injection of RhoGAM to prevent the build up of antibodies.

If that doesn't work, the baby might need a blood transfusion prior to birth or just after birth.
http://health.yahoo.com/ency/healthwise/hw149929
Dictionary/Encyclopedia.com


RhoGAM -- Rho(D) Immune Globulin is a drug introduced under the tradename RhoGAM and MICRhoGAM which is used to prevent maternal sensitization to Rh D antigens on the surface of blood cells in a fetus (i.e. to prevent immunological condition known as hemolytic disease of newborn). It is a solution of IgG anti-D (anti-Rh) which binds and destroys fetal Rh D positive red blood cells that have passed through the placenta from the fetus to the maternal circulation. This prevents maternal B-cell activation and memory cell formation. With the widespread use Rho(D) Immune Globulin Rh disease of the fetus and newborn has almost disappeared.

Answer 4

I had a little one boy eleven weeks in the past. I am RH- blood. The trouble with the bleeding is that commonly yours and the little one blood cells can combine and this explanations your frame to provide antibodies that may outcomes within the little one contracting Rhesus desease. I do not know plenty approximately the situation however suppose that it may be handled. I needed to have approximately three or four Anti D injections throughout my being pregnant to restrict this. After the little one was once born they proven the little one blood and fortunate he was once RH- additionally however had he taken on a optimistic blood style then i could have received an additional injection after the beginning. There are dangers however i do not suppose its as top a threat now because it was once as they are able to restrict it. Hope this is helping settle your brain somewhat.

Answer 5

i have negative blood also. except i have always been given rhogam. they give it to you once at 28 weeks? and then again within 24 hours after birth. my doctor has always given it to me. i would ask your doctor about it because it's a pretty common thing. the only complications that i can think of is that if your babies have positive blood, the antibodies in your blood attack the babies, thinking that they are foreign bodies. you might have to research this.

Answer 6

that would seriously be a question to go over with your obgyn. unless you come across an actual doctor on here that can answer it with the correct information for you, i would suggest taking that one up with the ob first. good luck!