Skip to main content

How rhesus factor affects your unborn child




By Dr Ombeva Malande


Dear Dr Ombeva,

I am a B- and my husband is B+ blood group. Do you think I will be able to give birth to a normal healthy baby? I am worried because a friend who is O- gave birth and the baby died, and the doctor told her it is because the husband is B+. What can I do to avoid the same fate?

Anxious

Dear Anxious,

We each have a blood group, either A, B, AB or O; that is either positive or negative, depending on whether they have inherited an Rh (Rhesus) factor; where people with a Rh factor are Rh positive while those without are Rh negative.

The Rh factor can cause problems if you (woman) are Rh negative and your foetus is Rh positive - called Rh incompatibility. These problems usually do not occur in a first pregnancy, but they can occur in a later pregnancy.

When an Rh-negative mother’s blood comes into contact with blood from her Rh-positive foetus, it causes the Rh-negative mother to make antibodies against the Rh factor. These antibodies attack the Rh factor as if it were a harmful substance.

A person with Rh-negative blood who makes Rh antibodies is called “Rh sensitised.” If the mother and father are both Rh negative, the baby also will be Rh negative. When a woman has a negative blood group, for example O negative, and her husband has positive blood group, for example O positive; the children may be either positive or negative blood group.

Each time she gives birth, the blood group of baby must be checked immediately after birth. If the baby has a positive blood group like the father, the mom must receive an injection called anti-D; within 72 hours. If the baby has a negative blood group like the mother, then anti-D is NOT needed.

The injection protects the mother’s future Rhesus positive babies from the effect of sensitisation of the mom’s negative rhesus blood by the current new-born baby’s Rhesus positive blood (because the effects are so bad and can kill the future Rhesus positive baby).

In an event where the baby is born rhesus positive and mom is negative and didn’t get the injection after 72hrs, we do the test called the Coombs test, to determine whether the mom got sensitised or not. If the mother and father are Rh positive, then it doesn’t matter whether the father is positive or negative because the mother has the Rhesus itself, so cannot get sensitised, and all her pregnancies are safe.

In addition, any rhesus negative mother should also receive anti-D after pregnancy loss at any time during the pregnancy whether induced abortion or spontaneous loss.

— Dr Ombeva Malande
is a paediatric and child health expert

 SOURCE_EVE WOMENS'S WORLD

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NJOKI CHEGE on Shisha girls

Twenty years ago, women used to cook like their mothers. Today, they smoke like their fathers. There are fewer things more disgusting than a woman who smokes. And I’m not talking about cigarettes. My beef is with women who smoke shisha. Shisha girls are undesirable, rough and have completely lost respect for themselves. There are two types of shisha girls: the eastlando and the so-called upmarket ones. The eastlando types use cheap perfumes costing Sh350 and buy high heels from Toi Market and Bus Station. They text random men on Fridays “Leo turn up iko wapi, baby?” because they need a man to buy them a pot of shisha. They are happy to go to Club Cubano but will never forget you if you upgrade them to Mojos. They wear their plastic weaves long and coarse, the ones you comb until the scalp protests. The polish on their nails — mostly blue — is chipped and their lipstick ghetto; the ones bought at Moi Avenue for Sh200. Their dreadlocks — if they happen to have them...
5 comments
Read more

There is no regret in Obedience

It’s a guarantee your life will never be the same again when you obey God. God is our CREATOR and our DIRECTOR meaning he knows the best way for our lives since he loves us, our role is to simply OBEY Him. Obedience is everything when we are relating to God. Obedience is the KEY ingredient in the kingdom of God. God is always ready to manifest himself in our lives when we obey Him and his word(John 14:23 Jesus Replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” Like 5:5 Simon Peter an experienced fisherman with a fishing business had toiled the whole night without any catch of fish and he was frustrated and tired and he was washing his nets UNTIL Jesus told him to Launch out into the deep again. Peter had a CHOICE to say YES or NO but he choose to OBEY and he said: “Nevertheless AT THY WORD I WILL LET DOWN THE NET”. The moment he chooses to obey instead of Questioning, Analyzing and trying ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sample Quotes by Former CJ Dr Willy Mutunga #AdiosCJMutunga #KenyaJudiciaryTransformation

Chief Justice Willy Mutunga retired on Thursday, just hours after delivering his final ruling as President of the Supreme Court. Dr Mutunga announced that he will be taking up a new job as a Commonwealth Special Envoy to Maldives, where he is expected to aid in the process of constitutional and political transition. He was appointed to the post by the Secretary General of the Commonwealth, the Rt. Hon. Patricia Scotland. Former CJ handing over his official flag to CRJ Anne Amadi Below are some of the sample Quotes by The Former President of the Supreme Court of Kenya After retirement he was appointed commonwealth special envoy to Maldives photo Credit to PAWA 254
Post a Comment
Read more