Rhesus incompatibility

..............a fatal battle between the mother and child’  s blood group

Kambili Satara, 28, has had series of miscarriages in her 5years old marriage. She lost three of her babies to miscarriage, and ones which could have been her source of joy turns out to be still births.

   Tongues began to wag. While some said kambili is not strong enough to deliver a baby, others swore she is a witch. However, other sympathizers encouraged them to continue trying.  And though kambili and Thors, her husband tried conceiving again, all the babies died one after the other. This was kambili’s case until she met me.

      I was window shopping when she tapped me, and took me through all her travails.  Being a midwife, I was quick to notice something was amiss, and so I invited her for a medical check-up in a hospital where I work. However, medical investigation soon revealed the cause of her problem, as series of test showed an incompatibility between mother and child’s blood groups. Doctors said they were rhesus incompatible.

      Another woman, Benita who was pregnant during her second year in the university but terminated it had similar experience. At the time she terminated the pregnancy she did not know her blood group or rhesus status. Subsequent attempt to give birth later proved futile as her babies died one after the other. Her babies ‘were declared Abiku/ ogbanje (babies who would stay because they are possessed).

     The predicament of these two women is typical of the situation many other African women find themselves. Rhesus incompatibility is a serious condition. A rhesus negative woman who gives birth to a rhesus positive baby would encounter problems.

 

       Expert who spoke to House of Blossom emphasised that rhesus incompatibility occurs between an unborn baby and its mother as a result of the generation of antibodies by the mother’s immune system against the babies red blood cells.

       Senior medical officer, General hospital, Oro, Kwara State,  Abdullahi M.O asserted that rhesus disease   also called rhesus isoimmunisation usually occur in subsequent pregnancies of  rhesus negative woman, where the husband is rhesus positive leading to a rhesus positive pregnancy. Mother would be exposed to the rhesus positive in the first pregnancy, leading to the development of antibody against the antigen (Rhesus D). However, the anti body may not have much effect on first pregnancy, but usually affect subsequent pregnancies. A sensitized woman continues to produce Rh antibodies throughout her life; this means that in a second or later pregnancy, an Rh positive baby is at risk for more severe Rh disease.

                “Therefore rhesus status is determined by the presence of Rhesus factor D; positive if present, negative if not. And how to know your rhesus factor is purely determined by doing blood group type testing, commonly called blood group”

Meanwhile another health expert Ibitoye .M. Arinola has said that rhesus disease could be prevented by ensuring sound antenatal visit. Moreover, Rh disease can be avoided if sensitization is prevented. If a Rh negative woman has not been sensitized to RhD positive blood, an injection of anti-D immunoglobulin can prevent being sensitized. If no sensitization occurs, rhesus disease cannot develop.

Know your rhesus status today!