Rh factor & complications during pregnancy
How can Rh factor affect a pregnancy? What medical procedures or medicines are involved with this situation?
What is a miscarriage?
What is the probability of a
miscarriage with Rh factor?
If the blood of an Rh-incompatible fetus and mother mix, the female organism will start making anti-Rh antibodies. As a result, miscarriage may occur because these antibodies can attack the fetus’s blood cells and destroy the placenta.
If the mother has negative Rh factor and the fetus positive, then the probability of a miscarriage is high due to the blood incompability.
Miscarriage is the spontaneous loss of the fetus, which usually occurs in the 20th week of pregnancy. It is caused by different factors, for example the fetus is not developing right, chromosomal mutations or due to the Rh factor.
A medicine involved in the situation of Rh incompatibility is the Rh immune globulin shot.
.
Remind us of the various blood groups;
particularly related to Rh factor.
Blood types describe whether the person has three separate antigens on the membranes of their red blood cells - namely A, B and Rh. The Rh factor determines whether the blood type is + or - . Thus the blood groups in total are eight: ±A, ±B, ±AB, and ±O. They are defined by the genes, inherited from each parent.
How could a mother and fetus
not have the same blood group?
In short, because both parents affect the child's blood type equally. Since Rh positivity is a dominant trait, if the father is homozygous dominant and the mother is Rh-, all possible pregnancies will come at a risk. And if the father is heterozygous, there is a 50% chance that the mother and baby will be incompatible.
Sources
Blood Type Incompatibility | Children’s Wisconsin. https://childrenswi.org/medical-care/fetal-concerns-center/conditions/pregnancy-complications/blood-type-incompatibility. Accessed 28 Feb. 2022.
The Rh Factor: How It Can Affect Your Pregnancy. https://www.acog.org/en/womens-health/faqs/the-rh-factor-how-it-can-affect-your-pregnancy. Accessed 28 Feb. 2022.
Rosie Arnaudova 10/3
Alexander Koukov 10/3
Interactive question for the class
Do you think that you should avoid partners which could risk the fetus' blood being incompatible with the mother's and thus lead to complications.
Www2.Palomar.Edu, 2022, https://www2.palomar.edu/anthro/blood/images/Rh_Punnent_squares.gif.