Hi,

I am completely new to this (never participated in a forum before) and am actually quite nervous about the whole thing but I have just got to a point where I have got a lot of questions in my head and need to see if there is anyone out there that might have some answers..

As a bit of background here is my story …. In August 2004 I had my DD. We fell pregnant after one cycle, I breezed through this pregnancy with no sickness or complaints and even breezed (well as much as you can) through a 2 ½ hour natural labour. Both my sisters have 2 kids each and experienced great pregnancies and quick labours (all under 4 hours) and we always joked about how we were made for having babies. My DH and I had decided that we only wanted 2 children and hoped for a 3 year age gap and so in August last year we decided to start trying again. We found out I was pregnant in October due June 15 this year.
Once again we had fallen pregnant after one cycle and I again had a great pregnancy until June 13 this year (39.5 wks) I went into labour, went to the hospital at 3pm and was told 20 min later that our baby had no heart beat and had died. We just couldn’t believe it. And I think when we are 60 we will still be thinking “I can’t believe this happened”. I had felt him move the day before and from the moment I woke on the 13th was having tightenings every 10 mintues so it just didn't cross my mind that anything would be wrong. Our Ob couldn’t see any reasons for this from looking at the ultrasound. Our DS arrived 2 hours later (at 5.15pm) weighing 7pd12. He looked just like our DD had when she was born except that he was not crying. To look at he just looked like a sleeping newborn. The OB said that the placenta and cord where slightly swollen and our DS had a touch of fluid on his hands and feet which they thought may help get some answers. We have since found out that he was severely anemic and he died from heart failure sometime in the 12 hours before he was delivered. They don’t know however what caused the anemia. Initially they thought it might have been from Rhesus Disease (I am B- he was O+) however they have ruled this out as I had no antibodies when I had my last blood test at 26 or 28 weeks. They have also ruled out parvo virus. The only other usual cause of severe anemia is a hemorrhage (the baby lossing too much blood) however they have also said that this is unlikely as I didn’t have many of his red blood cells in my blood. So we know how he died (heart failure), and that it was very sudden, but we don’t know a cause and more than likely never will. We were just told it was like lightening striking and it was extremely rare.

As a result of this I have also developed antibodies (even though I had the anti D injections at 28 and 32 weeks). My DH’s blood type is O+. We went back to see our OB today to get the all clear to start trying again and see what we are faced with. He basically has given us the green light (wahoo!!!) however he said that it is highly probable that our next baby will develop Rhesus Disease (due to the fact that I am now sensitized). He said that usually the first affected pregnancy (which our next pregnancy will be for the Rhesus factor) usually results in mild RhD and the baby is generally jaundice. They take blood tests monthly during the pregnancy and then if my antibody levels increase they do an amnio blah blah blah…… Sorry its getting a bit long.

So here we are 3 months down the track about to embark on pregnancy number 3 but I just have a few questions.
Has any body lost their baby due to severe anemia or something similar (or know of someone who has). If so just wondering if you found out the cause of this????
And secondly just wanting to hear from anyone who has had a pregnancy following sensitization (with the anti D antibodies) and anyone who’s baby developed Rhesus Disease during pregnancy to see how they coped, what treatment they received etc …….

I’m sorry this is so long.

I’m also just so sorry for all of your losses. I’ve had a bit of a read of the Pregnancy after loss forum and it gives me so much hope that if we are lucky enough to get pregnant again that we will some how get through it.