To not know my blood type?

[myexisanasshole]

So a thread yesterday reminded me that I should update my iPhone with my emergency contacts and the meds I'm on (quite a lot) and it asked my blood type?! I have no idea, asked my mum and she doesn't know either (thanks mum!) am I the only one? If I'm honest o do t know what my children are either 🙄 please tell me I'm not alone!

You can find out all sorts of interesting things about blood transfusion and donation at www.transfusionevidencelibrary.com The whole subject is completely fascinating.

We’re all A+ so easy to remember. The other 3 are heterozygous for Kell and I have antibodies.

Pregnancy complications highlighted that little gem.

I know mine (from my pregnancies), DH knows his (regular platelet donor)
Kids have never been tested

They only test if there is a reason to know

Probably just me , but I'm always surprised that people don't know their blood type. But there seem to be heaps of people unaware.
I'm O- so universal donor but can only receive from O-.
Dh is O+
One DS is O+. This equalled an RH -D jab in the ass for me.
One DS is O-

They all know what type they are, and have for ages. It came up in blood tests, and is on medical records. Different country though.

I have no idea, but I know from pregnancy it's a common one.

I'd love to know mine, can you ask at the doctors? All I can find on my maternity discharge notes is Rh status pos. Does that mean I'm rhesus positive?

I know mine and all my dc - I was told when they were born.

I'd say most people don't know so YANBU . I found out mine when I started giving blood (common O+). I can't remember any discussion during pregnancy but guess as Rhesus + there wouldn't be.

I know mine because my mother told me, I’m O- like her and my brother. Dad is O+ I think. Never donated blood although I really should, given mine is always in demand!

I am O- I was supposed to get the anti d injections with my second pregnancy, new rule since 1st one, but we had dh tested as we knew he was also O- but the hospital wouldn’t take our word for it.
Our dd,s are also O- . I was told if both parents are - then the kids will also be -. You can be + but carry a - gene which can be passed on, but if you are - you can only pass on -.

Yup, that's because Rh- is a recessive gene. You must have two copies of it for it to be expressed. Rh+ is a dominant gene, meaning that even if you only have one copy, it will be expressed.

B RH D Pos

What does that mean?

The Blood donor card just says B RH Pos

You will have been tested if you have any kids OP.

Both my children were tested at birth ( umbilical blood, so no needles)

Another O neg here as is my daughter and mother and my late grandmother 😁

I was told O neg is the one most needed as everyone can take our blood however O negs need O neg.

I found out when I donated blood when I was 18.

B RH Pos means blood group B Rhesus positive.

What's the extra "D?"

Think it's to do with the rhesus part. Some info on NHS blood donor site that I can't link right now. Is it a new card? mine is old and just says A RH Positive.

www.blood.co.uk/why-give-blood/blood-types/
At the bottom of this page piglet

Both DH and I are rhesus negative but when DC was born the midwife insisted she needed to give me and them anti-D. I refused and it turned into a major fuss. We even produced our donor cards confirming our blood groups. I later mentioned it to the Obstetrician who confirmed there is no way 2 rhesus negative parents could have anything other than a rhesus negative baby. This attitude of not believing patients can be bloody stupid at times.

the link says

"If you have the Rh D antigen, your blood type is positive. If you lack the Rh D antigen, your blood type is negative."

So I think if it says "Rh" then the "D" is redundant
It seems to mean that "Rh D pos" is the same meaning as "Rh pos"

My current blood donor card says "B RH Pos"

and I think the "B Rh D pos" came from an old document or card and I wrote it down myself.

My old blood donor card says Rh D Negative. My new one misses out the D so just says Rh negative

Yes piglet I assumed the same. The positive means positive to D antigens.

@agnurse that's actually not technically correct.

There isn't actually a RhD negative gene. You either have the RhD gene and type as RhD+ or you have no gene at all for that locus and therefore can't produce any RhD so type as RhD-. It's not the same as other inheritance patterns like ABO where the A and B gene are dominate over the O gene. Most people who types as RhD- have a deletion in their DNA that results in the RhD gene being missing entirely.

Of course there are exceptions to this rule, particularly in black Africans they sometimes have a variant of the RhD gene that is nonfunctional and thus also leads to an RhD negative phenotype. They still have the gene per say but it doesn't do anything so no RhD is produced in the individual.

@PigletJohn

Rh is a wider term used to describe an entire blood group system, sometimes also called the Rhesus blood group system.

Within the Rh system there are 3 potential blood group loci, they are the D, C and E. They are all very closely related and you can have different blood groups for each loci, e.g. for the D loci you can be D positive or D negative. For C you will either express the C blood group or c blood group, he same for E (you're either E or e.)

So RhD is a blood group within a wider blood group system called Rh. Not all Rh blood groups pertain to RhD but all RhD are Rh blood groups, if that makes sense?

Majority of midwives/nurses only know about RhD as it is the most important out of all the Rh blood groups so the term gets used interchangeably a lot.