Rhesus Incompatibility Causes Neurological Disorders in Babies – Haematologist
A haematologist with the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Dr. Titi Adeyemo, has urged pregnant women to undergo blood tests early to determine if they have rhesus incompatibility with the babies in their wombs.
Adeyemo, in an interview with our correspondent, said that hesus incompatibility between a pregnant woman and the child in her womb could cause severe jaundice, mental retardation and neurological abnormality at childbirth.
Describing the condition, she said, “The Rhesus disease is not a foreign disease. It can happen to anybody, as long as you are rhesus negative and you have rhesus incompatibility with your unborn child, which can put the baby at risk of having a rhesus disease if there are no preventive methods put in place.”
The haematologist pointed out that if a pregnant woman developed antibodies against her own baby, they would in turn destroy the baby’s red blood cells and create a situation that might lead to a stillbirth.
“If the baby is born alive, the baby will suffer neo-natal jaundice, which is very dangerous,” she said.
She also explained that when the destruction of the red blood cells crossed over to the brain and treatment did not follow immediately, it could cause mental retardation and neurological abnormality in the baby.
Another haematologist, Prof. Sulaiman Akanmu, noted that an affected baby would not show evidence of jaundice until 24 to 36 hours after birth. According to him, severe anemia, which kills or jeopardises the baby in the uterus, occurs when the baby’s haemoglobin is extremely low.
By: Dayo Ojerinde
The Punch News
