Rh Incompatibility (Rh Disease)
Birth Injury Lawyer
The Rh factor or “Rhesus factor” is a red blood cell antigen. When causing a birth injury, Rh Incompatibility occurs when a pregnant woman has Rh-negative blood type and her baby has Rh-positive blood type. If the mother is exposed to Rh-positive fetal blood cells during delivery or pregnancy, her body may produce Rh antibodies, which enter the mother’s circulation system. Once the mother is exposed, she may pass these antibodies to her child during the current pregnancy or future pregnancies. The exposed child may acquire fetal alloimmune hemolytic anemia, a condition where red blood cells are destroyed faster than they can be created, which means the baby will not receive enough oxygen.
Symptoms:
- anemia
- combination anemia and hyperbilirubinemia/jaundice
- erythroblastosis fetalis (severe hyperbilirubinemia/jaundice)
- kernicterus
