PREGNANCY-BIRTH Messages for June, 2000: Re: ABO blood incompatibility

Re: ABO blood incompatibility

From:

anonymous@obgyn.net

Sat, 17 Jun 2000 13:28:07 -0500 (CDT)

as a home birth proponant this is a difficult one for me. i know nothing myself about your medical situation. does the baby HAVE to have the blood tests immediately after birth? can he/she be treated immediately and avoid the problems with your second? can you birth at home then go in for the tests? i think if it were me, i would start interviewing doctors and find one who will help you birth in hospital but as naturally as possible. ask questions that will tell you how suppportive he will be, shop the local hospitals as well. find one that is willing to do as much at your bedside as possible. find out how soon the two of you can safely leave afterwards. in some ways i will soon be facign the same situation as you - weighing my health needs at birth against the interferance of the hospital. good luck!! however, if faced with the choice between dire consequences of home birth and interference in hospital i think i would have to choose the hospital.

vicki At Sat, 17 Jun 2000, Rebecca wrote: >
>My dh and I have two children together that suffered from ABO blood
>incompatibility. The second was born at a free standing birth center
>and the condition was not caught as early with him, sending him to the
>hospital after all to be under lights-then a bili blanket for another 7
>days. Other than this problem, pregnancy is a breeze for me and
>delivery is only complicated by my own spondlylolithesis (sp?) and the
>ABO. The problem is that most nurses and midwives are not familiar with
>this condition and assume it is RH related. It isn't and I am
>frustrated. I am pregnant again and having to face birthing in a
>hospital again for the sake of the baby is very difficult. Is there
>anything I can do? I understand there is no treatment for me to take
>while I am preggo, as it's supposedly just a reaction to my dh's and my
>own blood types (A+, O+ respectively) Regardless of being willing to go
>to the bloomin hospital again, the nurses still don't know a thing about
>it when it's mentioned in my file. In fact they ask me! Not very
>reassuring at all, so I am beginning to wonder if it's really a better
>idea to be at the hospital at all-especially if they try to take the
>baby away right after testing the blood for the condition. They scarred
>my first son's foot after birth and took him away from me. I don't mean
>to knock the medical establishment, but you would think after 4 kids I
>would know a little something about my own body and how to get through
>delivery the way I was intended. ANy suggestions as to how to deal with
>this annoying problem?

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