Blood Group?

[Snacks]

I am AB-
Will I have any problems?
I'm not sure what my partner is.

I think you may have probs because if your partner is RH+ your baby may be RH+ too. Have a chat to your midwife/OB.

[castle]

Mazzie, your partner can get his blood type tested. This is really simple. Any GP can give him an order. Or if your DP would consider donating blood, or has at any time, the Red Cross will have it on record! If he is Rh- (doesn't matter if he's A- or B-) then you have no issues at all, because bub will be Rh- too.
If your DP is Rh+, or if you never end up finding out what his blood type is, you will be tested several times during pg & you will receive needles during pg & after delivery to make sure that you don't develop antibodies to bub's blood type. This is nothing big...most Rh+ mums have to do that!

Kimbaz,to find out your dd's blood type you have to ask the GP to order a blood test, unless you had her cord blood tested at birth.

[SallyJ]

I am O-, and have had a shot with both my pgs. Not sure whether DH is + or -, I think they just assume +.

[Yael]

The will always give an - woman Anti D (with her consent of course, you can refuse this, as it is a blood product and hence comes with all the -minimal- risk of other blood products)

They wont ask what your partner is (if you know), because they can never be sure that they were the father.

DH is +, and hence i have anti D, but if he was - (hence my baby must be neg), and i was sure he was the father, i would refuse to have it.

The main problem is with subsquent preganancies, because the time when blood mixing (and hence antibody formation), occurs is at birth. It can also happen with m/c or a knock to the stomach, so you should make sure if these occur to talk to your dr about having Anti-D.

There is a book against Anti-D "Anti-D in midwifery", i don't buy the arguments in there personally, but it is worth the read.

[~phyrephly~]

I'm bumping this because I just received my first bloods back and found out I am O-, the nurse told me briefly that I may need injections and I freaked a little, I had no idea about this! DP is A- so I don't know what that means about our baby's blood type. I have printed off the fact sheet in this thread...

Anyone else a O- and needed the Anti-D? Do you get Anti-D automatically if you have RH negative? Like, do you HAVE to get it? And when, during pregnancy, what weeks?

Thanks ladies

[Visitor7]

You get the anti D at approx 28 & 32 weeks (I think). It's no biggie, just an extra needle. As to whether you HAVE to get it or not, check out the blood bank website with regards to why you need it. That'll answer your question.

[~phyrephly~]

thanks jodi

obviously it is safe otherwise ppl wouldnt get it done, would they?

Just nervous because i have had a termination (5 years ago) and i had no idea about this back then, nor did i know about my blood type. finegrs crossed that everything will be ok...

[Visitor7]

It'll be all ok. When I was in labour with DD1, my (pathetic, old) dr didn't get me to have any anti-d shots while pregnant with her and during labour the midwives realised this was not my first pregnancy. All was good in the end though.
It is safe, very safe actually, it could potentially save your baby, so definitely (in my opnion) a good thing to have done.

[~phyrephly~]

thanks again jodi, its reassuring to hear

GL with your upcoming birth!

[~TT40~]

Ok..this might get complicated, but ill try and make it simple.

in terms of blood group, you can be A, B, AB, or O. and then you can be either a + or - of any of these. In a majority of cases, in pg only the + and - factor affect babies and mums.
I'll just talk about + and - for simplicity.

basically + means you HAVE the RH factor D antigen, and - means you DONT have the RH factor D antigen (on the surface of your red blood cells)

if your body recognises an antigen your ok, but if you get an antigen in your body your body does not know, it will make an antibody to fight and kill it.

so in terms of mums who are - means they don't have the antigen. when pg, they expect about a 6ml blood transfer from BUB to MUM (obviously mum to bub is alot more because of the placenta and growth etc). sometimes there is a little more blood going from baby to mum, esp. if mum gets hurt and there is trauma.

so, say mum is - and baby is + (this means baby HAS the antigen, but mum does not) and if a little bit of babies blood goes into mums, all of a sudden this antigen is in mums blood system, and her immune system will see it as a threat (because it hasnt seen it before), so mums immune system makes a antibody and tries to kill all the + things in mums body....including the sourse, her baby.

so to prevent mums immune system from destroying her baby, we give mums 'anti D' so her body recognises it earlier and doesnt build an antibody.

does that make sense?

and in terms of if mums + what are the chances of bub being + and -....ill try and draw a table.

look at it like everyone has 2 things. like if you are + you are either ++ ( 2 postives) or + - (one positive and one neg). to be - you have to be - - (two negs.)

so if mum is ++, and dad is ++ then baby is deff a ++.
if mum is ++ and dad is + - then baby will still be + because even if dads - bit is passed on, it would still be + - and therefore +


you can get a - baby if both parents are -. but you can also get a - baby if one parent is - and one parent is + (if the are a + -)

I tried drawing a table...but looked away to messy


but i hope this helps people!!

[~phyrephly~]

Wow - thanks teirae... thats really comprehensive!

Both DP and I are -, does that mean our baby won't be +?

I'm probably just looking waaaay to into it, I should just let it be!

[~TT40~]

it you are 100% sure you and DP are both - and are both the parents of the child (that sounds so horrible and i'm sorry, but we never assume =( )

then yes, your baby will be -

[deletedit]

Blood types are fun. I'm A-, partner is A+, last bubs was A- too. Which means he's actually A+-. So I didn't get a final shot of antiD in the bum after she was born.

I guess we'll just take pot luck with the next one. If he ever bothers to turn up

Turns out my father and grandmother and quite a few of my uncles are also -ve, so it certainly runs in the family.

[flossy17]

i am 0- and my dh is +ve, both my children were born +ve. I was given the Anti-d injections when pregs with both children and both children where checked at birth for thier blood types, and i'm pretty sure i recieved this injection again after thier birth. These injections are blood products, therefore come from blood donors. (last i heard anyway). I am not an expert on these things but to give a bit of history of my family. My grandmother was a -ve and had 2 +ve babies - all was fine. My mum was born and required an urgent blood transfusion (she was a blue baby) as a result of my grandmothers antibodies killing off the 'foreign' antibodies in my mothers blood. (Now not trying to scare anyone)However when her next baby was born, the doctors said he would be fine but they waited to long to give the transfusion, and subsequently my uncle was born brain damaged through a lack of oxygen in his system. If they had these anit-d injections then i'm sure none of this would've happened. So alot has changed in 50years, and having this background knowledge i didn't hesitate to have the injections done. I would talk to your doctor, there are pamplets on this and alot of info on the net. good luck

[~phyrephly~]

it you are 100% sure you and DP are both - and are both the parents of the child (that sounds so horrible and i'm sorry, but we never assume =( )

then yes, your baby will be -

Ha! I understand He is definitely the father and is definitely A- (he says the only things negative about him is his blood type - pfft!). He is definitely A- because his mother was working in blood pathology when she had him and checked all her kids blood types after they were born.

[megs]

Hi,

I am 0-, I have 3 children and also suffered a miscarriage with first pregnancy, and bleed in next pregnancy so had anti D injections throughout. As mentioned previously they tend to give them at 28 and then around 34 weeks. When I delivered my son they took his cord blood and tested his bloody type (he came back O-) as he was negative I didn't need another injection.

Anyway due to my husband not bothered to get his bloody typed in my next 2 pregnancies I went through the whole needle thing, and all 3 of my boys are O-, so long story short DH finally had to have a blood test and remembered to request to have his blood typed and what do you know he is O- also, basically I had all those needles for nothing as there was no way any of my kids would be +.

I would discuss it further with your Dr, but if your DH is sure he is -ve I wouldn't worry about the injections.

Isn't it funny until you are pregnant it is one of those things you never give two thoughts about,.

[~phyrephly~]

oh megs, I am sorry to hear you had unnecessary injections and that your DH took a while to get blood typed!

it is strange that all these things i never would have thought about have come up now that i am pregnant! I don't think i am going to bother with any injections, DP is positive he is negative, as is his mum (my MIL) so i can refuse. I may have a test for antibodies, just in case my last pregnancy/termination had any effect. i will see what comes of that when it happens...

thanks for your info!

[deletedit]

Turns out I've created two negative kidlets now - my partner is positive, so the only injection I don't need to have is the post-birth one. Can someone work out what those odds of two negative babies in a row are?