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What is blood group incompatibility?
“Never before the birth of my little boy, had I asked myself the question of any blood incompatibility between him and me. I am O +, my husband A +, for me there was no rhesus incompatibility, there was no problem. I had a cloudless pregnancy and a perfect delivery. But joy quickly gave way to anguish. Looking at my baby, I immediately realized that he had a questionable color. They told me it was probably jaundice. They took it from me and put it in the light therapy device. But the bilirubin level was not going down and they did not know why. I was extremely worried.
Not understanding what is going on is the worst thing for parents. I could see that my baby was not in a normal state, he was weak, like anemia. They set him up in neonatology and my little Leo stayed continuously in the ray machine. I couldn’t be with him for his first 48 hours. They brought him down to me just to eat. Suffice to say that the start of breastfeeding was chaotic. After a certain time, doctors ended up talking about incompatibility of blood groups. They told me that this complication could occur when the mother was O, the father A or B, and the child A or B.
At the time of childbirth, to put it simply, my antibodies destroyed my baby’s red blood cells. As soon as we knew exactly what he had, we felt immense relief. After several days, the bilirubin level finally dropped and luckily the transfusion was avoided.
Despite everything, my little boy took a long time to recover from this ordeal. It was a fragile baby, more often sick. You had to be very careful because his immune system was weak. The first few months, no one hugged him. Its growth was monitored very closely by the pediatrician. Today my son is in great shape. I am pregnant again and know that there is a good chance that my child will have this problem again at birth. (It is not detectable during pregnancy). I’m less stressed because I tell myself that at least now we know. “
Lighting by Dr Philippe Deruelle, obstetrician-gynecologist, Lille CHRU.
- What is blood group incompatibility?
There are several types of blood incompatibility. The rhesus incompatibility that we know well and which is expressed by severe anomalies in utero, but also theincompatibility of blood groups in the ABO system that we only discover at birth.
It concerns 15 to 20% of births. This cannot happen that when the mother is of group O and that the baby is group A or B. After delivery, some of the mother’s blood is mixed with that of the baby. The antibodies in the mother’s blood can then destroy the baby’s red blood cells. This phenomenon leads to abnormal production of bilirubin which manifests as early jaundice (jaundice) in the newborn. Most forms of jaundice related to incompatibility of blood groups are minor. The COOMBS test is sometimes used to detect this anomaly. From blood samples, it makes it possible to observe whether the mother’s antibodies attach themselves to the baby’s red blood cells to destroy them.
- Blood group incompatibility: treatment
The bilirubin level should be prevented from rising because a high level can cause neurological damage in the baby. Phototherapy treatment is then set up. The principle of phototherapy is to expose the surface of the skin of the newborn to a blue light which makes the bilirubin soluble and allows him to eliminate it in his urine. More complex treatments can be instituted if the baby does not respond to phototherapy: immunoglobulin transfusion which is injected intravenously or exsanguino-transfusion. This last technique consists of replacing a large part of the baby’s blood, it is very rarely performed.