Rhesus factor: you and your baby

If a newborn child has Rh-positive blood, and the mother has Rh-negative blood, then this combination can be a serious threat to the life of the baby. Rhesus factor is the cause of the widespread and often tragic disease of young children - fetal hemolysis.

The mechanism of action of Rh factor
Why does this disease lead to the death of the child? In the red blood cells of the vast majority of people, both women and men, there is a Rh factor. Such people are called "Rh-positive". Those people whose blood does not contain the Rh factor (5-15% of them) are considered "Rh-negative". If those with Rh-negative blood are exposed to blood with Rh-positive blood, then molecules are starting to be actively developed in their bodies - antibodies, which attack and act destructively on the blood of the Rh-positive person.
This is the natural mechanism of our immune system, which has a function to attack foreign "invaders". Here, and there is a danger for the child - the inheritance of the Rh factor of the father, who has Rh-positive blood. If, by coincidence, the mother has a Rhesus-negative blood type, then the mother's body can start forming antibodies and become sensitized.
How can antibodies get into the bloodstream?
Ideally, there is a natural barrier between the mother's blood and the blood of her unborn child - their blood should not be mixed. However, this can happen, with medical procedures, when a small amount of fetal and maternal blood penetrates the placenta. For example, taking a sample of fluid from the amniotic bladder (amniocentesis) can provoke the overcoming of this protective barrier.
Now in the mother's body there are antibodies that will continue to adversely affect the children of all subsequent pregnancies if they inherit the father's Rh positive blood. Each subsequent pregnancy increases the risk of an unfavorable outcome - hemolytic disease of the newborn.
Although some antibodies must pass through the placenta, that the baby has to create a temporary immunity acquired from the mother.
Prevention is an effective method
The method of introducing into the mother organism a special immune serum called antiresusive immunoglobulin, which contains antibodies directed against the Rh-positive antigen, successfully works. This is a truly effective method that helps prevent disease. Antibodies of this serum destroy all the Rh-positive red blood cells that have penetrated the maternal organism and thereby eliminate the danger for the future child - such antibodies are no longer formed in the body of a woman. Indeed, the proverb that was widespread among doctors was true: "It is better to spend gram on prevention than kilogram for treatment".
How important is the definition of Rh factor
To determine the Rh factor, it is enough to conduct a routine blood test.
According to statistics, only one of the seven marriages is with a dangerous combination: Rh-positive dad and Rh-negative mother. Also, the likelihood of a fetus with Rh-positive blood from a Rh-negative mother depends on the father's heredity by 50-100%.
Usually, the first child is not seriously threatened by hemolytic disease, if before that the mother's blood did not penetrate (transfusion or other). There are mothers who have five children with Rh-positive blood, but the woman was not sensitized, while the other can become dangerous already at the first pregnancy.
An important warning for families with a Rhesus conflict factor: if a woman becomes sensitized, regardless of gaps between births, the threat of death from Rhesus-conflict of each following fetus will be 30% if the child inherits Rh-positive blood.
Therefore, try not to treat this lightly, discuss these issues with your doctor and visit the antenatal clinic during pregnancy. Protect your child from the dangers posed by the "conflict" Rhesus factor.