Blood test results

[Dropitlikeitshot]

Hi all!

So I’ve just had a call from my Dr’s surgery, asking me to ring them back and make an appointment for repeat bloods, as they’ve found antibodies in my blood.

Both DH and I are RH+, therefore baby will be too, so I’m not worried about that.
Will these antibodies just be a sign of infection?

I did have thrush at the time of blood being taken, but have since started treatment for this, and it’s much better. Could this be a reason why?

I asked if it was something to be worried about, but the receptionist said it didn’t say so in the notes.
Has anybody had this before? Despite being told not to worry, I have to say I am after a previous MC.

TIA!

I have no idea sorry op, the only people who can tell you what antibodies they found is the midwife or doctor. Were these from your booking bloods?

Thanks for the reply!
Yes they were, and they’re being redone next week.
I know I won’t be able to tell exactly, and the dr didn’t say what it may be, it’s more would they be there due to thrush.

No thrush does not effect antibodies. You can get other types of antibodies in your blood, not just being rhesus negative. These levels will just be monitored on a 4-6 weekly basis x

Thanks for that @Jellybean100 it’s good to know.
I just have to try and not worry from now until Monday.

I and also rh+ and had antibodies with ds2. I had several blood draws and my blood ended up being sent to the National blood bank, but in my case they never did figure out which antibodies they were. They said that if I ever needed a transfusion that my blood could take extra time to cross match, but that was it for now.

Obviously while I waited I worried a lot and looked into it. There are actually loads of different antigens that make up blood types beyond the A/B/O +/- that we’re used to seeing and this is what is getting flagged with you. Some of the antibodies are problematic in pregnancy and many are not. They will do additional testing to try to determine which antibodies you have. Once they do that, then they’ll determine the course of action. If you have a potentially problematic antigen, they will do blood draws to measure the titre levels (how much of the antibodies you have), different antibodies have different thresholds. If you exceed the threshold, they will do regular ultrasounds to monitor the baby and proceed accordingly. Worst case scenario could include intrauterine blood transfusions.

This all sounds super scary, BUT the likelihood of having clinically significant antibodies is low (most of them don’t affect pregnancy), then if you do the likelihood of them reaching significant titre levels is very low, then if you do the likelihood of needing anything more than regular monitoring is very low, and then if you do they know how to address the issue and the ultimate outcomes are extremely likely to be good.

In my case, ds2 was a little jaundiced, which is common with antibodies, but frankly could have been due to other reasons as well. It resolved quickly and he had no long term complications.

There is a board on BabyCenter that’s called “Antibody Isoimmunization” that I found to be very helpful that deals with all of this. Try not to stress too much until you know which antibodies you’re dealing with, but also know that the ultimate outcomes are generally good no matter what.

@gotakeahike - Thank you so much for that info, I’m so sorry it was a scary time for you.
It all sounds very complicated! I think if it was explained like that to me, I would have felt much better when they called.
Thank you so much again, I’ll check that group out.