h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Danny, as I said before this was very fascinationg to read. I am a rhesus-negative mum with my first son being rhesus positive. I had completely forgotten about the antibody search tests that were done during both my pregnancies (just one during my first pregnancy and one immediately after, and three during my second pregnancy).
What I wonder about is the following:
>>These antibodies bind to any rhesus proteins that enter the mother's bloodstream, thereby hiding them from the mother's immune system until they are naturally broken down and removed from the body.
<<

Does that mean that they'll be broken down anyway?
Sorry, I can be a bit thick at times.
And I remember having been told that I'd have to have the antibodies within 72 hours after birth.

And what happens if you lose a baby (which can happen naturally within the first few weeks) and never get the antibodies, if you donate blood, will you risk donating rh-neg blood containing antibodies to rh-pos blood?

Right - let's see if I can answer some of those...

>>These antibodies bind to any rhesus proteins that enter the mother's bloodstream, thereby hiding them from the mother's immune system until they are naturally broken down and removed from the body.
<<

> Does that mean that they'll be broken down anyway? <

Yes - the proteins would eventually be broken down and removed (pretty much everything in the body gets recycled eventually)!, it's just a case of stopping/limiting the damage until that happens.

> And what happens if you lose a baby (which can happen naturally within the first few weeks) and never get the antibodies, if you donate blood, will you risk donating rh-neg blood containing antibodies to rh-pos blood? <

I'm going out on a limb here, so don't take anything I say as definitive, but I would imagine that if you lose the foetus that early, then the blood system won't have developed and the mother would not have been exposed to Rh+ antigens. Even if the mother was exposed and did donate blood, any blood would be cross-matched before being used, so it would only be given to Rh- individuals.

Does that answer the question..?

Yes, thanks. I've often wondered about the latter, because nowadays, blood is usually only given to the same blood group anyway, but I wonder whether rh-neg blood containing antibodies for rh pos blood could cause exactly the problems mentioned if given to a rh-neg mother, so maybe the blood would be discarded in the first place and there wouldn't be any sense in donating it at all?

I think it's always worth donating blood (sadly, on the two occasions I've tried, my body has reacted quite badly to having blood removed and I've ended up in a slightly embarrassed heap on the floor )

I imagine hospitals would be very careful about any blood given to a Rh- woman of childbearing age (at least, I *hope* they'd be very careful..!)

Yes, you're probably right, you can only hope hospitals would be extremely careful.
And I recently wrote a journal about my (failed) attempts of donating blood, plus it is the subject of my current Random Ramblings in .
Sadly, nobody seems to read , or maybe they just don't read my column, I don't know.

And it should really have been IID in the subject line

I sometimes feel that way about my Post articles as well... Bear with me a moment...

Hi Danni,
Wondered how open you were to questions? You seem to know a lot about this subject and i am in need of some guidance and comfort really i think. There is so little known about rhesus + rh negative mothers etc that i have had difficulty getting answers from my consultant(s) - of which i now have 3....
I will be on checking again this week, please let me know if your free for discussion.
Cheers

Hi,
I'm not a doctor, so I'm not really able to answer detailed questions about the subject. The Entry was written as a basic guide, based on what I remembered from my University days and a little bit of research. I can't claim any expertise, or to know anything more than is already in the Entry.



Danny B.