RHESUS INCOMPATIBILITY

Discussing this topic brings mixed feelings,not because of its importance but for its complexity,it's a topic that has created arguments among medical professionals too.

Sometime last week one of my nurses sent me blood samples of her children to run in the lab of a friend. She wanted blood group and genotype test on them. The result came out with one of them having a rhesus negative group O(O-).

There are various blood grouping systems,but the common ones are the ABO system and the Rhesus groups.

In this case,both parents are rhesus positive and test result revealed one of the offspring to be negative! This puts the scientist that performed the test on a hot seat,calling a friend will be an option if he can.
The nurse got angry about the result and hell was almost let loose,if not for her maturity I probably won't be here to discuss this.

The question remains,is it possible for 2 rhesus positive parents to have a rhesus negative child?

Keep your money for paternity test in your pockets,the answer is YES!.

In this system the positive are dominant over the negative. If your
genetic type is ++ or +-, your blood type will be Rh positive. Only if
your genetic type is — will you be Rh negative. This means that if
both parents have Rh+ blood with the +- genes, they could have
children who are ++, +-, or –. In other words, their children could be
either Rh positive or Rh negative. Children who are Rh negative can
have parents who are either Rh positive or Rh negative.

Two parents who have O positive blood could easily have a child
who is O negative. In fact, most children who are O negative have
parents who are positive since the +- combination is so much more
common than the — combination.

Confused? I would be too,if I wasn't a nerdy doctor,just take away this, parents who are rhesus positive can have a rhesus negative baby. Get it?yes you do.

This last point is very important,if you are a rhesus negative lady and your husband is rhesus positive(most people are rhesus positive)once u are pregnant you will need to take an injection called RhoGam at second trimester and immediately after birth,some school of thought says only after birth is necessary.

The reason for this is that,in the first pregnancy,the blood of the rhesus positive baby you are carrying may cross to the mothers blood stream through the placenta bed and sensitize the immune system to produce antibodies that will fight the rhesus positive baby.

The first pregnancy might be issue free,resulting in a healthy baby. Subsequently,any rhesus positive baby you carry in the womb will be sensed as a foreign body by the immune system. The body fights it accordingly,causing miscarriages or habitual abortions.

The implication of this are,if you are rhesus negative any pregnancy you have/miscarriages /abortion or D&C,must be followed by intramuscular RhoGam injection or anti D,otherwise you stand a chance of frequent miscarriages and habitual abortion.

For quick reference,the following points should be noted:

• Couples who are both rhesus positive can have rhesus negative offspring

• Every rhesus negative woman MUST take RhoGam injection after delivery

• Every rhesus negative woman MUST take RhoGam injection after abortion or D&C

• Any woman with history of habitual abortion or frequent miscarriage should check are rhesus group

• A rhesus negative woman married to rhesus negative man does not need RhoGam injection.

Spread the word,have seen a lot of this in my gynae clinic,together we can change a lot.