Bukola went through an uneventful gestation period and safely put to bed at a private hospital. It was then their travails began. The baby’s health became a growing concern and to the dismay of all, died few days after birth. The couple was devastated. Bukola in particular was inconsolable.
To make up for the loss, sympathisers suggested they set about having another baby immediately. A couple of months afterwards, their prayers were answered. The couple became happy again. The couple prayed fervently that for the survival of this new baby. Alas, history repeated itself. The baby died shortly after birth.
Something was definitely amiss. Investigation soon revealed the cause of the problem. Series of tests showed an incompatibility between mother and child’s blood groups. Doctors said they were Rhesus incompatible. Further investigation showed Akin and Bukola never carried out the necessary blood grouping medical tests before they were married.
Another woman, Nkechi who had her first pregnancy during her first year in the university but had it terminated, had a similar experience. At the time she opted for the elective abortion, Nkechi did not know her blood group or rhesus status. Attempts to give birth later proved futile as her babies died one after the other.
Tongues began to wag. While some said Bukola’s children were Ogbanje, others swore Nkechi’s children were Abiku . The predicament of these two women is typical of the situation many other Nigerian women often find themselves. Rhesus incompatibility is a common but serious situation. A rhesus negative woman, who gives birth to a rhesus positive baby would encounter problems. Experts say she would have difficulty having live babies.
In this part of the world, when a woman consistently loses a child few days after delivery, such children are mystically called ogbanje or Abiku and this belief has made it difficult for most victims to find solution to their problems. However, medical evidence shows that Rhesus incompatibility occurs between an unborn baby and its mother as a result of the generation of antibodies by the mother’s immune system against the baby’s red blood cells.
Normally, pregnant women do not display any symptoms of this reaction, but babies born with this condition often have anaemia and jaundice. The symptoms in newborn babies include jaundice and anaemia (a lack of red blood cells). Babies with the condition will usually need to be admitted to a neonatal unit. Treatment includes phototherapy (treatment with light) and, possibly, bloods transfusions.
If left untreated, the effects of the jaundice in the newborn baby can lead to learning difficulties, deafness, and blindness. Severe cases can lead to stillbirths. This condition also called Rh (D) disease, or haemolytic disease of the newborn can only happen if the mother has rhesus-negative blood (RhD negative), the baby has rhesus-positive blood (RhD positive), or if the mother has previously been sensitised to RhD positive blood.
In Nigeria today, statistics available have shown that Rhesus disease contributes to the incidence of 144 Nigerian women who die daily from pregnancy and childbirth complications. It has also been found that it is another major cause of the country’s high infant maternal mortality rate. Worse still, women who might have had a history of elective abortion could have been exposed to the condition.
According to a Paediatric Surgeon at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Prof Akin Bankole, many of children had died due to the Rhesus incompatibility from their parents who were ignorant of their status.
“ A Rhesus negative woman by nature would have difficulty having live babies. Those that have could have children with the disease, they would eventually die”
Bankole explained that sensitisation occurs when a woman with RhD negative blood is exposed to RhD positive blood. This could happen during a pregnancy with a RhD positive baby, or if the woman has a blood transfusion with RhD positive blood.
The woman’s body responds to the RhD positive blood by preparing to attack it with antibodies (infection-fighting chemicals). The first time this happens it is known as sensitisation.
Unfortunately, most young ladies who may have been exposed to abortion may also have been sensitised without knowing it.
“If sensitisation has occurred, the next time the woman is exposed to RhD positive blood, her body will start to produce antibodies immediately. If she is pregnant with a RhD positive baby, the antibodies can cross the placenta and cause rhesus disease in the baby.” Although, there are measures to ensure that a Rhesus negative woman was able to deliver life babies, most Nigerian women are ignorant of their Rhesus status.
However, an injection of anti-D immunoglobulin was introduced in 1977 to prevent sensitisation, and has reduced the number of cases of rhesus disease by 90 per cent. Knowing ones rhesus status and including it into the routine screening for all pregnant women would reduce deaths in infants and mothers.
Furthermore, the disease can be prevented by treating the mother during pregnancy or promptly (within 72 hours) after childbirth. The mother would receive an intramuscular injection of anti-Rh antibodies (Rho (D) Immune Globulin) so that the fetal Rhesus D positive erythrocytes are destroyed before her immune system can discover them.
This is passive immunity and the effect of the immunity will wear off after about 4 to 6 weeks (or longer depending on injected dose) as the anti-Rh antibodies gradually decline to zero in the maternal blood. In the same vein, it’s part of modern antenatal care to give all Rhesus D negative pregnant women an anti-RhD IgG immunoglobulin injection at about 28 weeks gestation (with or without a booster at 34 weeks gestation).
This reduces the effect of the vast majority of sensitizing events which mostly occur after 28 weeks gestation.
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/01/rhes ... -at-birth/
