Rare Blood Types and the Rhesus Factor?

Question

I am trying to find information on the above, to explain to my son who's 6. My blood type is A Rhesus Negative and due to this i was given the anti-D injection after his birth. I understand the reasons for this but I'm still unsure of the whole Rhesus positive/negative explanation and whether or not my blood type is rare or common?
As you can imagine, explaining this to my son is actually confusing the poor lad more! I need the basic facts so i don't completley misinform him!

Answer 1

The ABO and Rhesus blood groups are in dependant of each other. That means whichever ABO group you are you can be either Rhesus positive (Rh +) or Rh(-).

The Rhesus groups are quite complex but for the moment let's just consider Rh+ and Rh-. If you are Rh + then you will have a particular type of chemical on the surface of your red blood cells. This is called the D antigen. If you are Rh - then you don't have the D antigen and we write this as d.

The D antigen is an inherited characteristic, just like eye colour. It is controlled by two genes, one you get from Mum the other you get from Dad. So you can be DD (Rh+) where you get one D from Mum and 1 D from Dad. Alternatively, you can be dd
(Rh-) where you get one d from Mum and 1 d from Dad.

Of course you can also be Dd. Here you get from Mum or Dad, and the d from the other parent. However, D is said to be
dominant over so if you are Dd then your blood types as Rh+.

In your case you are dd (Rh-) and seeing you were given anti-D after your son's birth he must be Dd. He got the d from you and the D from his Dad.

A Rh(-) is not particularly rare. and is found in about 2-3% of the population.

Good luck in explaining this to a 6 year old!!!

Answer 2

ABO blood groups. The gene for ABO blood groups has 3 variants A, B & O. Each individual has 2 copies of the gene, 1 inherited from each parent. Each blood group has the following possible combinations of variant (called genotype).

A: AA or AO; B: BB or BO; AB: AB; O: OO.

If you are of blood group A then the gene produces a protein, called an antigen which is located on the exterior surface of blood cells. Likewise someone with blood group with B produces the B antigen. AB individuals have both and O do not have either.

Your body recognises your own antigens as self and these are ignored. However if blood containing the other antigen type (in your case B) accidentally contaminates your body, the immune system will recognise the 'foreign' blood cells and produce antibodies against them. This is important for blood transfusions: people with blood group O can only receive O blood; A can receive A or O; B can receive B or O and AB any type of blood. O is called the universal donor and AB the universal receiver.

The most common blood group in the UK is O - about 46% then A (42%); B (9%); AB (3%).

In terms of rhesus there are only two variants - positive (produces antigen) or negative (no antigen). The corresponding genotypes are positive ++ or +/- and negative --.

As you are negative you also know your genotype is -- and your son's genotype +/- as he must have inherited the negative from you and the positive from his father.

The proportion of rhesus positive in the population is about 85% and negative 15%.

Although your A blood group is fairly common the chance of being A/rhesus negative is quite rare (42% x 15% = 6.3%).

Being rhesus negative means that contamination of your blood with rhesus positive blood will cause your body to produces antibodies against the rhesus antigens. During pregnancy with a positive baby there is a risk that the two bloods will mix causing the mother to produce antibodies against the developing baby. The anti-D injection stops this. After birth, when mixing of the two lots of blood is highly likely the anti-D injection stops the immune response. This means that if there is another pregnancy a positive baby won't be under attack from the mother's immune response from the point of conception.

Answer 3

1

Answer 4

Ratty has it, but Rhesus is a surface protein.

In terms of blood types, all it is is different people with different proteins on their red cells.

Blood grouping is a routine test based on identifying the presence of specific surface proteins on your red cells. You can have any number of over a hundred different proteins on them including your common A, B and Rhesus.

People who are O-, AB-, A- or B- do not have the Rhesus protein on the surface of their cells. O+, AB+, A+ or B+ people do.
(NB Blood group O just means you don't have A or B whilst AB means you have both. The + and - refers to Rhesus).

On top of your A, B and Rhesus proteins you can have any number of a few hundred other different proteins. A rare blood group just means you have a protein that few others have.

The question is, if you needed a transfusion or gave blood, would the presence of that protein cause a problem.

Our bodies operate on the basis that anything foreign to the body must be removed/destroyed. The body does this then 'remembers' what it killed and produces antibodies against it. It is the principle for vaccinations.

In transfusions, with blood grouping incompatibility, the host body may reject a protein on the surface of transfused cells. When the immune system identifies it as foreign, and tries to destroy the protein, the red cell is destroyed too. This releases free haemoglobin and other by products that are toxic to the body.

In terms of pregnancy, this is what happens:

A Rh- mother gives birth to a child who is Rh+. This is the first child born to the mother who is Rh+. eg your first and second children might be Rh- but your third child is Rh+.

During childbirth, via the umbilicus, it is possible for blood from the baby to 'mix with the mothers blood - a mini transfusion.

So when the baby bleeds into the mother, her body identifies the Rhesus protein on the blood cells as foreign, destroys it along with the cell, then creates a memory against that protein. In this case the mother produces anti-D antibodies.

So all is fine for the baby that just bled into mum. The problem comes with sebsequent Rh+ babies.

If any child conceived after this child is Rh+, then the mother's own immune system will kill the baby in the womb resulting in a natural abortion, still birth or miscarriage. This is because the mother's body now recognizes the rhesus protein as foreign.

To stop the possibility of this happening, medical intervention prevents the mother's body from developing a memory against the rhesus protein. They do this by giving anti anti-D injections each and everytime a Rh+ baby bleeds into a Rh- mother or there is a high risk.
ie mothers are given antibodies (anti anti-D) against the antibodies (anti-D) that their bodies have produced in response to the baby's blood, to inactivate them.

This is Rhesus incompatability in it's simplest. Think of your injection as something that prevents you being vaccinated against Rh+ babies. :-)

This can also happen if mother and baby have different ABO types. It is known as ABO incompatibility.

Answer 5

Do you desire to understand one of the factors normal Law of attractionproduct doesn't work for so many people? Here is the answer https://tr.im/qGTxV .
One of the responses for this question that you will discover in this guide is that it makes it seem like as soon as you do get exactly what you want, that' it. Okay, you have what you want now however exactly what are you supposed to do in order to sustain the modification or benefits you've gotten? Think it like a diet plan. If you desire to drop weight and you strive to lose it, all right, you've handled to lose the weight? Does this indicate you can stop doing the things that triggered you to lose the weight in the very first place? If you do, then it will only be a brief duration before you were back to your regular weight and perhaps a little much heavier.
What you require, the option of this issue is this guide that doesn't confuse you about what LOA. This is exactly what the Manifestation Miracle is expected to do. This guide is an unique spin on conventional LOA product, since standard LOA material doesn't seem to give the whole picture of exactly what' required in order to succeed not simply in the brief term but long term.

Answer 6

in a very simple way rhesus means that if you carry a baby in your body that has a different blood group than yours any spillage of its blood (delivery or small breaks in placenta) will result in death of the baby because your body will recognises it as an invading disease and triggers immune response against it. with the first pregnancy the rhesus facor is not taken into consideration until birth when the baby blood will be in contact with yours (delivery) and the antibodies will be raised and stored against it. the injection is given to temporarily stop the antibody reaction against the phoetus blood. doing so in the next pregnancy if the blood of the phoetus is different from yours your immune response will not be as violent as it should be without the injection you had when you had the 1st baby. this is due because the body sees the baby blood as the first time is there and will take longer to build immune response against it, in the meantime the injection would have done the job and blocked the immune system to do so

Answer 7

OK. If you are explaining this to a six year old you need to start with basic stuff. You want him to have a basic idea of antibodies. My daughter (4) has allergies so we had the same basic topic. The Magic School Bus has an episode on germs that includes the typical Y shaped pictures of antibodies. I think it is called Inside Ralphie. It is also available in book form. Other books about germs for kids will also work.
Then explain that most babies make a certain thing that confused your body. Your body would think the thing was a germ. Your doctor gave you a special medicine that kept your body from thinking his body was made of germs. (these are actually antibodies that cover up the D sites but don't set off the immune system.) I would play the movie or read the book a few times before you even mention the relevance if he is interested. My daughter loves Magic School Bus and Bill Nye. G'luck!

Answer 8

You have the third most common blood type in the US and UK, though there is quite a drop off after the big 2. O+ is the winner at 37% of the population, A+ at 35%, and then B+ at 8%. A- and O- are next in a tie of 7%

Answer 9

someone has already explained the rhesus question

the blood groups are
A can only receive A or O
B can only receiveB or O
O can only receive 0
AB can receive any of the others

these are all depening on matching the rhesus and some other factors but that it basically it

: - )) hope that helps?

Answer 10

I too had the Anti - D injection after my daughter. It was explained to me that because i am AB Neg and my daughter has inherited her father's blood type she is A posative, the posative and negative mixture can cause problems with your next pregnancy so they give you the injection to help protect your next pregancy.

Although i had many problems carrying my daughter because i have some anti-bodies in my blood which make staying pregant very hard, so perhaps my information is not 100% correct.