Q. I dunno if anyone will be able to help me with this, but I'm curious. I understand Rh sensitization during pregnancy and why it's important to prevent it. My question is this: is there a similar reaction to a mixing of maternal and fetal blood with regard to the ABO system? If not, then why not? It seems like it would work on the same principle, but I've never heard of a drug that addresses such a problem.
A. With Rh factor, named after it's discovery using Rhesus monkeys, the problem occurs when the fetus is Rh+ (thus HAS the Rh+ protein) and the mother is Rh- (does NOT have the protein). In this case the child would have gotten this protein from the father. The mother's body sees the protein as foreign, at least to her, and tries to destroy it, and in doing so harms the fetus in the process. With the ABO system you can have whats called ABO incompatibility. This disease afflicts newborns whose mothers are blood type O, and who have a baby with type A, B, or AB.
Ordinarily, the antibodies against the foreign blood types A and B that circulate in mother's bloodstream remain there, because they are of a type that is too large to pass easily across the placenta into the fetal circulation. Some fetal red cells always leak into mother's circulation across the placental barrier (mother and fetal blood theoretically do not mix, but in actuality, they do to a small degree).
These fetal red cells stimulate the formation of a smaller type of anti-A or anti-B antibody which can pass into the baby's circulation and there cause the destruction of fetal red cells. The increased rate of destruction of red cells causes a subsequent increase in waste product production. This excess waste product, bilirubin, can overwhelm the normal waste elimination processes and lead to jaundice, the presence of excess bilirubin.
This condition is one of the hemolytic anemias. Jaundice is the most common problem encountered, which may require phototherapy or even exchange transfusion. Anemia of some severity is sometimes encountered and may need to be tracked with serial blood counts, but I have yet to see a case severe enough to justify transfusion. For reasons that are unclear, B-O incompatibility (mother type O, baby type B) seems to be in general more severe than A-O incompatiblity.
Can you get two rhogam shot during pregnancy?
Q. I wanted to know can you get two rhogam shot during pregnancy? Cause I research an dad that said only one.
A. from personal experience having 3 boys all A positive, the older two born in the 80's no rhoGAM during pregnancy only the day after. My son born in the 90's I had one shot at 28 weeks and he developer multiple health issues caused by the mercury. I asked my current gyno and he said the shot given the day after a positive birth was so effective that less than 2% of babies developed RH disease and hemolytic anemia. He said the only reason the shot is given during pregnancy is to increase profits. The less than 2% would never be helped by the shot. There is always a risk of any medicine in pregnancy. My middle son had RH disease and he is a Jr. in college on a football scholarship with a 3.2 GPA. I'll take 6 months of treatment for RH disease over the life long problems my youngest suffers. He will never hold a job, live on his own, marry or have friendships.
Is it true that Anemic people have a complicated pregnancy?
Q. I'm not pregnant, but my blood type is O positive and my blood type has a lot of blood problems..like anemia and i just wanted to know like what are the complications that they have while pregnant cause babies practically drain u of blood during pregnancy don't they? I don't plan on getting pregnant anytime soon, but I'm just really curious about it..like how can i find out more information about the complications of my blood type and possible complications during pregnancy.
A. You should be fine. Your blood type will not cause you any problems. Lots of women are anemic all the time as well as during pregnancy. They may prescribe you iron pills to take once or twice a day. Babies don't drain you of blood. Your blood volume actually increases by 50% when you are pregnant. They will check your blood type when you become pregnant because the only real risk is if you were Rh-, meaning you were A-, B- , etc. No worries.
How long after pregnancy does you hair stop falling out?
Q. I've always heard that your hair wont fall out as much and be really pretty during pregnancy and that afterward its very normal for it to fall out.
Well now, my son is 11 weeks and my hair is still falling out!! I counted last time and I got over 80 hairs out (give or take) during my shower and styling. I'm not noticing any bald patches or anything and I'm not doing anything different with my hair care routine so what gives??
A. http://www.kellymom.com/bf/concerns/mom/hairloss.html
Postpartum hair loss is a normal - and temporary - postpartum change that is unrelated to breastfeeding. Most women will return to their usual hair growth cycle between 6 and 12 months after birth.
Many new moms notice hair loss - sometimes quite dramatic - around three months postpartum. This is a normal - and temporary - postpartum change that is unrelated to breastfeeding.
Following is how the hair growth cycle works:
All hair has a growth phase, termed anagen, and a resting phase, telogen. On the scalp, anagen lasts approximately 3 years, while telogen lasts roughly 3 months, although there can be wide variation in these times between individuals. During telogen, the resting hair remains in the follicle until it is pushed out by growth of a new anagen hair.
-- from Telogen Effluvium by Elizabeth CW Hughes, MD
Normally, around 85-95% of your hair is in the growth phase at any point in time, but the hormonal changes during pregnancy stimulate an increase in the percentage of hairs in the growth phase. As a result, many women enjoy thicker hair during pregnancy, as more hairs than normal are growing and fewer than normal are resting/shedding.
With the birth of your baby (and the hormonal changes that accompany birth), a larger number of hairs than normal enter the resting phase. Since the resting phase is followed by hair shedding (and regrowth), new mothers will experience greater than normal hair loss once the resting phase ends.
Postpartum hair loss commonly starts at around three months after birth. The amount of time between childbirth and the onset of shedding corresponds to the length of the resting phase of hair growth (between 1 and 6 months, with an average of three months). The hair loss can seem more extreme if your hair grew much more than normal during pregnancy, or if you have long hair. Most women will return to their usual hair growth cycle within six months, or between 6 and 12 months after birth.
If you feel that your hair loss is greater than the norm, or if things are not back to normal by the time your baby is 12 months old, then see your doctor. Excessive hair loss can be caused by common and easy-to-remedy postpartum conditions such as hypothyroidism (low thyroid hormone) or iron-deficiency anemia.
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