What Your Rh Blood Factor Means to Your Baby’s Health
As if the list of things to worry about while pregnant isn’t long enough, your blood type should definitely be added to that list. If your blood type is positive and your baby’s is negative (or vise versa), these differences must be addressed medically in order to prevent potential problems for your baby.
If you and your baby have opposite blood types, your body will begin to produce antibodies that will attack your baby’s blood cells.
How to Know if You’re at Risk for Rh Factor Complications
Fortunately, blood type compatibility is routinely checked in the United States and is quickly detected with a simple blood test. Avoiding potential problems is also easy. For example, if you are Rh-negative and your baby is Rh-positive, you will be given an Rh-immune globulin around 28 weeks gestation and again after your baby is born.
The exact treatment will depend on your blood type.
With first pregnancies, Rh incompatibility usually does not pose a problem, but with subsequent pregnancies, the risks increase.
What makes Rh incompatibility so concerning is that if it is not detected, your baby can develop severe jaundice. Jaundice, if left untreated, can cause brain damage. And in turn, brain damage can cause cerebral palsy.
Finding out your blood type should be taken care of early in your pregnancy, if you don’t already know it.
When Your Baby Has Jaundice or “Turns Yellow”
Seeing your baby’s skin and eyes unexpectedly turn yellow is alarming. It should also send you straight to your doctor’s office.
It is estimated that approximately 50% of newborn babies develop this odd looking discoloration. The good news is that it’s usually nothing to worry about. Jaundice typically starts around the second to fifth day of your baby’s life and lasts about two weeks.
Your baby will develop jaundice if he had a build up of bilirubin (bile pigment) in his blood. Your newborn’s liver starts off immature, so removing the bilirubin from his blood is hard work for his young liver.
Even though seeing your baby turn yellow is scary, it’s usually no cause for alarm. However, if your baby is showing more of a brownish discoloration, then her bilirubin levels are too high and immediate medical attention is required.
Severe jaundice is treated with phototherapy. The blue light breaks down the bilirubin so that your baby’s liver can pass it out of her body through her stool.
If for some reason the phototherapy does not cure your baby’s jaundice, your doctor can take extra measures by performing a special blood transfusion.
All jaundice needs to be checked out by your doctor as soon as you notice the discoloration. Only your doctor can advise what steps to take next. Severe jaundice must be treated quickly and correctly to prevent brain damage. If your baby develops brain damage, she is at greater risk for developing cerebral palsy.
If Your Baby Suffered Rh Incompatibility or Jaundice And Now You Suspect Cerebral Palsy
Seek expert advice now. It’s the only way to know if your doctor and medical team did everything possible to keep you and your baby safe and healthy. If your doctor failed you and your baby in any way, you may be entitled to financial help.
Contact 4MYCHILD today and see if your child is eligible for Benefits4Life.
