Amnio: can they tell a babys RH Factor from the results?

[Linnet]

Just as a matter of interest can they tell what blood group and what Rh group a baby is from an amnio test?

anybody know?

Don't think so- as I think you need a decent volume of blood to do those checks. Could be wrong though and am happy to be corrected.

No you can't. Would need to take blood from baby direct from cord.

are u rh-? think it will only cause a pronlem if u are, oh and having a nice big jab in your nottom after.

thanks for your answers.

The reasons I asked is that I am Rh negative and my mother in law says that my dh is rh negative as well. We asked the hospital if they would test my dh so we could be sure and that way if he is negative I wouldn't need the anti-d injections at 28 and 34 weeks, or whenever it is that you get them. I know that I'll get one because of the amnio but would like to avoid any further ones if I can.
Anyway Hospital are rather reluctant to test Dh's blood just keep saying that it's not something that they do which I think personally is ridiculous. I don't see why they can't just test him because if he is negative then the baby will be negative as well and I won't need the Anti-d injections.
I was hoping that if they could tell from the amnio then I would be able to say that I'm not having the anti-d injections, oh well back to the drawing board. I guess Dh will just have to go ask his Dr to do a blood test or something so we can find out.

thanks anyway once again.

The reason the hospital will not test your dh is because in a small but significant number of cases dh might not = darling daddy. They're not casting aspersions- in fact by applying a blanket policy which is the same for all they're avoiding making any individual judgements- but it's always the one's you least expect!
If your dh's doctor is happy to test him and he is Rh-ve then you can be happy in your own mind that you don't need the Anti-D and decline it.

Yes Popstar someone did mention that probably being the reason before but we figured that if we specifically asked for them to test him then it would be ok.

I read somewhere last night online that it is possible to tell the blood group and RH factor of a baby from the amnio, just thought I'd check with others though as I had never heard of that before.

Send your dh to donate blood , Linnet. They will tell him his blood group, and he'll be doing a good deed at the same time as saving nhs resources!!

linnet - I'm Rh neg and ds1 was Rh pos (thanks to dh!) and I had the anti-D after the birth. During my second pregnancy I wasn't even offered any Anti-D. Ds2 was also Rh Pos and fine. Surely you would only need the extra injections if your blood tests showed you were producing antibodies? Two lots of anti-D were more than enough for me!

It would actually be technically possible to test Rh status from an amnio, but not by conventional means. The amnio can be used to make DNA and as the Rh gene has been cloned the DNA could be tested directly, as opposed to doing a normal blood test. I very much doubt that a standard hospital service would stretch to this, unfortunately. Good luck!

Isn't there a chance that your DSs blood group is in his GP records anyway?

Like the idea of giving blood instead though - nice one!

linnet- they'll test the baby when he's born. I had anti D after having Rh+ve ds1 but didn't have antiD after having rh-ve ds2. They take ages to get round to it anyway ime so they have plenty of time to test baby's blood.

i had anti-d after both pregnancies, not during. had extra blood tests throughout the pregnancies as well.

I am RH neg. Not sure what my dh is. I had an anti d injection after my ds was born but had none when I was pregnant with dd. It turns out she was rh neg.

i think they take blood from the cord when u give birth and test that. i hate the injections

They used to wait until after the baby was born and then test the blood from the cord to see what Rh the baby is. My dd is Negative, like me. This time around (in my area at least I'm not sure if it's nationwide yet) they have changed the guidelines and give you anti-d injections if you are Negative during pregnancy that way if there is any chance the baby may be positive then the mother won't make antibodies to the child.

To me it seems a lot more simple if they were to test the husband/partner because if he is Negative and you are negative you are going to have a negative baby. Therefore you won't need the anti-d.
If the father is RH positive then you'd probably still get the anti-d injections incase the father has passed the positive gene onto the baby.

I understand that not everyone would want their partner/husband tested but surely if you specifically asked them I don't see a problem, but who am I to question the Dr's.

I'm sure your blood group is something that isn't in your medical notes at the dr's as I can remember my best friend asking her dr what her blood group was just out of interest and the dr didn't know as it wasn't in her notes. I, like her, always thought that it was something that would be in there but apparently not.

My mother in law says that my Dh is negative like her and Dh's brother but we wanted to check just to be definite.

Anyway thanks everyone and I'll mention donating blood to my Dh, we hadn't thought of that.

I only found out I was Rh Neg when I went to give blood.

Hadn't got a clue what DH was until DD1 was born and she was found to be Rh Pos. Had an anti-D jab after her birth, another one after DS1 - also a Positive baby. I was then given Anti-D AGAIN at 28 weeks with No 3 as I started bleeding and it was given as a precaution. After all that, DD2 was born at 42 weeks and found to be Rhesus Neg. like me

linnet they can't test the dh in case the baby isn't his. (I think studies have showen a surprisingly high % of babies have different fathers- is it 10%? I forget). So they couldn't use that as a procedure. Also it doesn't tell you much. My dh is Rh+ve but because his mother is Rh-ve his sperm could carry either a Rh+ve or Rh-ve allele. So every child we have it's 50:50 whether its Rh+ve or Rh-ve. So far we're fitting the stats. Ds1 is Rh+ve and ds2 Rh-ve.

linnet- it's true that finding out that a dh was Rh-ve would mean you wouldn't need the injections, but I doubt its an efficient use of resources to test all men as there will be few couples in this situation. Also it doesn't get round the problem of definite paternity.

Presumably Linnet knows if her partner is the father of her child, though.

Since Linnet is sure her DH is the father, if he turns out to be Rh -ve then she can simply refuse the Anti-D. Surely they can't force her to have it?

Oh yeah I'm not doubting the paternity of linnet's baby- I just mean that's why I doubt the hospital would agree to it. If she found out he was rh-ve I guess she could refuse anti-D although I suspect the hospital would still want to check cord blood. Hopsitals don't tend to trust mother's on this one (eg the women who are given a pregnancy test when they have abdominal pain even though the dh has been away for 9 months and woman says pregnancy is imposssible etc).

Linnet - here if the full guidance which is in pdf format so may take a few minutes to download
here

I totally agree with you that your husband's blood group should be checked (as stated in the guidance). The Royal College of Midwives does not agree with routine administration on anti-D to all women in the first place though. I think most women will not be offered the chance to have their husband's blood group checked because of the riculous paternalistic attitude that women cannot be trusted to admit their own baby's fatherhood.

If I was you Linnet, I would insist on getting your DH's blood group checked. If he is Rh negative, you will be avoiding the unnecessary injection of a blood product with all the as yet unknown risks that entails.

It would be really good if you could encourage your DH to be a blood donor. That way he will know his blood group and also be able to help babies and adults in need of blood transfusion in an emergency. If he is rhesus negative, his blood is really precious. I had 2 babies needing transfusion due to Rhesus disease - and I still have a problem with ALL Rh neg. women being given anti-D.

IVillage says that amnio can test Rh factor . All sorts of places on the Internet sell kits to test your blood type; I thought Boots sold a blood type testing kit, too.