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Doctor insights on: Rh Incompatibility

Simple lab test: Mothers are generally screened prenatally for several issues. Your blood type will be part of that screening. If you are rh positive, your baby will not have an rh problem. If you are rh negative & screening tests show no evidence of rh challange (transfusion, unmonitored pregnancy) you will often get a blocking antibody shot mid pregnancy & do ok. Discuss this with your ob. ...Read more

RhoGam: Your physician knows about this and there's more than a 99% chance you'll be fine. ...Read more

Close to it: Close to it.

Kinda complicated!: We all have a blood type such as a, b, ab, or o but also are either Rh negative or Rh positive. Rh incompatibility is when the mom is Rh negative and the baby is Rh positive. In this case, the mom can form antibodies which cross the placenta and hurt the fetal red blood cells, making the baby anemic. We counter this by giving Rh negative moms an injection called Rhogam to stop antibody formation. ...Read more

RhoGam: Your physician knows about this and there's more than a 99% chance you'll be fine. ...Read more

Simple lab test: Mothers are generally screened prenatally for several issues. Your blood type will be part of that screening. If you are rh positive, your baby will not have an rh problem. If you are rh negative & screening tests show no evidence of rh challange (transfusion, unmonitored pregnancy) you will often get a blocking antibody shot mid pregnancy & do ok. Discuss this with your ob. ...Read more

Discuss with doctor: If you are rh negative and the baby is or could be rh positive, your doctor can monitor you for the development of antibodies and also try to prevent the development of antibodies by administering rhogam. ...Read more

Unclear question: It is not feasible to answer your question as there is no incompatibility between a person's red cells and other cells. ...Read more

Maybe,maybe not: If mom is rh + and dad is rh -, there will be no problem.If mom is rh- and dad +, there could be a problem if: mother ever had a transfusion with a rh + blood component, or had a prior pregnancy with a rh+ baby that was never treated with rhogam. The usual management of rh - mothers during pregnancy includes injections that can prevent incompatibility issues from occurring. ...Read more

Sensitization: Mom is rh negative. Dad is rh positive. The baby, possibly both, are also rh positive. The first pregnancy will sensitize mom causing her to produce an rh antibody. This antibody will decrease over time. But with a second pregnancy, the memory cells cause tremendous antibody production. This antibody crosses through placenta and breakdown the red blood cells of the infant. ...Read more

Close to it: Close to it.

Huge subject: Whole textbooks deal with this subject. It's so large I wouldn't even be able to refer you to a reliable website. You may want to start with the AABB American Association of Blood Banks. Blood for transfusion should only be given when it is truly, really required -- and when it does, it's a huge life-saver. ...Read more

Only Rh: If there is no immediate adverse reaction to ABO incompatible transfusion, there are no long term effects. For Rh mismatch, it could result in developing antibody to Rh that would cause transfusion reactions in the future if given Rh positive blood to a Rh negative person if s/he received Rh positive blood. It could also put the Rh positive fetus of the Rh negative woman at risk. ...Read more

Potential problem: Your body may react if exposed to your baby's blood. Such a reaction can affect red blood cells, white blood cells, or even platelets. Such reactions typically reduce the numbers of the affected cell type. The effects depend on the cell type affected and how much their numbers are reduced. Rhogam is given to rh-negative mothers during pregnancy and after birth to prevent a type of this problem. ...Read more

Exposure to differen: Blood types. Typically refers to a baby having different blood type than mom. Therefore, there is prolonged breakdown of red blood cells, causing jaundice. This can occur in transfusions, where the wrong blood type is given. This is uncommon. ...Read more

None come to mind: Today blood incompadibility comes up mostly for newborns but may arise with transfusions. The issues are generally transient & resolve once the time limited antibodies have disappeared. If blood breakdown was monitored and toxic effects were minimized at the time, there is no reason to anticipate further problems. ...Read more

Confusing question: You are to vague with your question to comment specifically.Do you mean if the couple has unprotected regular sex for 8 years without having kids? That would not be an incompatibility, that would likely be a fertility problem in one, the other or both.Evaluation of both at a fertility center would provide answers. ...Read more

Rarely problematic: Many mothers with babies with rh incompatibility get rhogam, a medication which decreases its severity of the incompatibilty many other types of blood incompatibility may require special light therapy (phototherapy). Nowadays, babies very rarely need special type of blood transfusion, known as exchange transfusion. ...Read more

Yes: Your blood group is based on presence of specific antigen on your red cells, if you have "a" antigen, you are "a" blood group, if "b" antigen then "b" blood group and if you neither have "a" nor "b" antigen, then you are "o" blood group. Both "a" and "b" antigen are based on genetic make up. However, the ABO incompatibility that can lead to jaundice only happens when mother is "o" blood group. ...Read more

Not used for it: The ABO and rhesis blood grouping systems are separate issues altogether. Rhogam is used to prevent an rh- mother from becoming sensitized to a rh+ baby & developing antibodies that would destroy some of the babies blood for that or future pregnancies. The Rhogam has no effect on potential ABO issues. ...Read more