What does this letter mean?

[whenskiesaregrey]

Just received this letter from the hospital regarding the bloods taken at my booking in appointment.

Dear WSAG

Your recent blood test shows that your blood contains some 'Antibodies'.

During a normal pregnancy, blood from the baby can enter the mother's bloodstream; the amounts are small and not felt by the mother.

Sometimes when this happens the mother forms an 'Antibody'. These antibodies are harmless to the mother and the majority are harmless to the baby but s few capable of affecting the baby's red cells.

It is important to check the levels of these antibodies intermittently. We therefore need to check your blood in the next week.

The lab also requests a sample of your partner's blood, to assess the implications these antibodies may or nmay not have during your pregnancy.

So, is this basically telling me about rhesus negative? Or is it telling me that my WBC is high? Tbh, it is that vague that I am a bit frustrated by it. And I think its a bit patronising, but that may be down to over sensitive pregnancy hormones! It says on the blood form they have also sent that I am 0 pos, so isn't rhesus neg irrelevant? Or is it still relevant if DH is rhesus neg? TIA.

R- isn't the only type of strange antibodies you can get that may present a problem. I think that's what you have (not a Rhesus problem), but some of the unusual antibody conditions are complicated to manage so probably why the generic letter.

I hope you can get some specific answers at your next appointment.

I wasn't sure if its referring to a high WBC? If that is the case, I had a sore throat when I had the bloods taken, so that would explain it. But I didn't think WBC would affect the baby's RBC?

I wish they had rang me so I could have actually spoken to someone about it!

Rare antibodies.

Don't google too much, you'll only find ways to scare yourself. If they thought it was urgent they'd tell you, they are still figuring out if there even is an issue. Maybe you already know that pregnancy is a a journey with unexpected twists & turns (& often a generous dose of false alarms).

Good luck for next week.

Thank you lljkk. I had no issues like this with my first pregnancy, but I don't suppose that's relevant.

Not sure if it's any help, but I was found to have Anti M antibodies after blood tests taken at booking in.

The midwife called to tell me and believe it or not, actually said 'I don't know what it means' I was also given a card to carry (bit like an organ donor one) saying that if I ever needed a blood transfusion, my blood would need to be matched.

Anyway, the levels were low and all they asked me to do was to come back at 28 weeks for further tests, where it was then found to be negative for the antibody?!

Hopefully your antibodies are like mine, and will amount to nothing. Doesn't help the stress levels though, does it?

Good luck

I know I have anti d injections for my blood type and I believe if they.know your partners bloid group it can eliminate,any guess work.
apart from that im not much help im sure its another common case of the pregnancy journey being a worry xx

If you hd raises WBC they'd have said that specifically. Try nit to worry. If you are worrying, ring them!

I have just tried to ring them but no-one knows what it means. It's such a rediculous system where I have to ring the community centre, who refer me to the hospital, who then try and contact the midwife at the community centre to ring me back

Both me and DH had more bloods taken today, so hopefully we should have some answers soon!