This pregnancy was definitely a different experience. Aside from being pregnant and delivering during a pandemic, I was considered high risk because of a condition called RH Incompatibility. So exactly what is RH Incompatibility?
RH Incompatibility is when a Rh-negative blood type mother is pregnant with a Rh-positive baby. The mother’s body reacts to the baby’s blood as a foreign substance and starts to make antibodies that attacks the baby’s red blood cells. Blood from your baby can cross into your bloodstream during delivery. It usually doesn’t affect the first pregnancy because the baby is often born before many of the antibodies develop.
There is a a shot called rhogam that is suppose to be given to the pregnant mother during and after pregnancy to prevent sensitization (antibodies forming against baby). If the mother does not receive this shot and is sensitized the pregnancy will have to be monitored closely as there is no cure. In mild cases the baby could have anemia. In severe cases, heart failure and death. The condition also gets worse with each pregnancy.
I never received the rhogam shot in my first pregnancy or remember even being told about it. I never even knew that I was Rh-negative. I only remember the hospital giving me a card after my son was born stating that I had gotten antibodies in my bloodstream (which I thought was from the blood transfusion that I had received from hemorrhaging after delivery). I was young (20) and had no clue or no voice during my prenatal care and labor/delivery, so I just took the doctors and nurses word for it without informing myself (big mistake), but that’s a whole other blog…
During my second pregnancy with my oldest daughter I was sensitized, but I still didn’t fully understand the condition yet. My condition with her was more mild and she was born with anemia. It wasn’t until my third pregnancy with my baby girl now that I realized how serious this condition could be.
This go round I had planned to have a natural home water birth…that did not go as planned. I remember getting the call from my midwife telling me that I would no longer be eligible for a home birth because my lab results showed high levels of antibodies. Of course I did what any pregnant woman who had her birthing plan axed would do…I cried!
From there we had to come up with a quick plan for a hospital birth with a specialist, which wasn’t easy considering I was already in my second trimester. Can you say stressed out! Once we settled on a specialist things got even more stressful.
I found out that my level of antibodies had gotten very dangerous so I had to get an ultrasound every week to monitor baby girl’s blood flow and make sure that there weren’t any signs of heart failure. I was going to doctor’s visits twice a week until her delivery. I held my breath through EVERY ultrasound. Unfortunately, her tests ended up showing dangerous levels so the doctor informed my husband and I that she would need an intrauterine blood transfusion. I had to prepare myself for the possibility of an emergency cesarean section to deliver her at just 21 weeks if her body rejected the transfusion.
The blood transfusion was a success and bought us enough time to possibly make it to a scheduled induction at 27 weeks without having to repeat the procedure, but baby girl decided to come sooner at 25 weeks. She had to spend 4 days in the NICU due to her bilirubin levels. Those were the longest days of my life not knowing when her levels would be well enough for her to come home.
She is truly my miracle baby and I feel so blessed that God kept her through it all. So many times I think back on my pregnancy journey and I get emotional. Even though it was tough, I praised God through my entire pregnancy because I knew that He had promised me this baby and He cannot lie. I believe that there are certain situations that God allows us to go through in order to build our trust in Him. He knows that He can bring us out, but we need to know for ourselves that He can, and that He will. Those are the moments that build our faith. The moments that we look back on and say if He did it then, He can do it again! There was this song that I would always sing in the shower during my pregnancy that goes “You are great, You do miracles so great, There is no one else like You, There is no one else like You”. Indeed.
