Posts Tagged ‘Blood Incompatibilities’
Blood Incompatibilities
Blood Incompatibilities
Erythroblastosis Fetalis (EBF)
EBF is the result of blood incompatibility between the mother and her fetus. Understanding how the negative and positive blood incompatibility occurs can be confusing, but here goes.
When the mom’s blood type is negative and the baby’s father’s type is positive, the baby has a 50/ 50 chance of being positive too. Being positive is what causes the problem between mom and baby. The mother’s body normally views the baby as a friendly, harmless parasite. In the Rh negative mom whose baby is Rh positive, the mother’s body views the fetal blood cells as dangerous intruders and takes action. Mom becomes sensitized and develops antibodies (weapons) to destroy the red blood cells in the baby. As the red blood cells are being destroyed, the baby becomes anemic. More problems develop as the baby tries compensating for the anemia. In severe cases, the fetal heart and liver can fail from trying to keep up, although with current treatment 70 percent of even severely affected babies survive.