Blood test showing Antibody M Negative in my blood - am terrified, what on earth does this mean?!

[dibblesquibble]

Please, can anybody help? Some background: DD is now 2 + a half, but I have prior history of 4 miscarriages and diagnosis of Antiphospholipid Syndrome (Recurrent Miscarriage Clinic, St Marys Paddington). Currently pregnant (21 weeks), and under hospital/consultant care at Kingston, my local hospital. At today's clinic, they checked my "booking" blood tests - Antibody M Negative was flagged up. I didn't have this show up in blood tests in my last pregnancy and have never had a transfusion. I am so bloomin' cross with myself, as I always seem to be one step behind in interpretation of my results at clinic. ie, panic at 16 weeks because my placenta was low, relief today - 21 weeks - because it's actually ok. However, by the time I got home, I was only just absorbing the info about this pesky antibody...and am feeling really stressed again. They said no risk for the baby, but does anyone know what this antibody "means"?

i had strange antibody results in my last pregnancy. the first i knew of it was when the antenatal clinic sent me a very ambiguous letter & i managed to convince myself i had hiv . i was really cross with them though. no one managed to explain exactly what the problem was, though i seem to remember they took litres more blood.... so please don't panic. can you ring your midwife tomorrow?

Dear Dibble. Sorry to hear about your worries. Don't know anything about antibody-M. Could it be that you are Rhesus negative (this is a wild guess)?
I would call the clinic and ask for an explanation -- I think they should give you detailed information.

antibody M has something to do with Rubella - i expect this means you either dont have rubella, or are not immune.

did they mention anything about rubella immunity at your first set of tests?

BTW it doesnt mean you have it, incase thats worrying you! it means the antibody that would be present if you had it, is not there. make sense??

Hello - thanks for your messages. I am actually B+ blood group, so it's not a Rhesus negative connection... And I don't have a midwife, as I'm under consultant care - doh! Am trying to stay calm, but it's just the minute anything "non-standard" happens when I'm pregnant I just completely panic that it's all going to go horribly wrong again. I am also concerned that if I can track down a hospital midwife ((very, VERY slim chance of getting through to the consultant) to talk to, or even my GP, it might not be something that they know much about! Oh - ! I need to do something, though, as it's three weeks before my next appointment and I need all the sleep I can get!

did you not see my message yet?? do not worry!

From google (and I generally wouldn't suggest you google these things yourself ) says that it's a simliar scenario to the RH-ve one. Howver, the problem seems to be if it is present in your blood so the fact that you're M -ve implies that it's actually Ok.

Disclaimer: have no knowledge of this, am not medical in any way, was just curious and googled it

call your midwife .. this is why they have phone numbers

Thanks for the support, folks. Yes, I had already googled and wasn't coming up with much that helped...(ie, MORE terror!)

Just to clarify - I was told I definitely DO have the antibody, and - have just double-checked my notes - the antibody itself is called "M Negative". Likewise, my notes say I'm rubella immune, so I don't think it's to do with that.

As regards contacting a midwife - I wish it was that simple! In any (minimal) contact I've had with the genuinely lovely hospital midwives (this pregnancy and the last) they refer/defer to the consultant whose care I am under when I have any queries. I think this is because I have to take medication for the pregnancy. So I may be better to try contacting the consultant directly. Er... Will need to put my brave head on!

dibblesquibble - the way that result reads to me is that you have been checked for antibody M and you do not have it. Phone your consultant's secretary to clarify. You need to clarify the confusion.

with rubella, they test for antibody M and antibody G.

detection of rubella antibodies is carried out by seriological testing (testing serum levels in blood). I'm sure this just means you don't have rubella, hence why youre notes are saying your immune.

I'm getting this from my midwifery textbooks btw,im not a qualified person.

mears is a midwife btw

My interpretation based on what mears says is that maybe the concern is that if you don't have antibodies that means you are not immune, hence if you were exposed to rubella you could get it. If I am right (and I may very well not be) they would be saying it's not a concern because rubella is harmful in the early stages of pregnancy, perhaps?

This is what was written on my notes today, after we had looked at the blood test results data on the PC and I was told that I did have the antibody in my bood: "antibody M negative reported. Needs repeat on 28/40 bloods. Not a risk for HDN but may cause delay in cross match".

If it was rubella-related wouldn't they have used the word "rubella" as something familiar for me to latch onto? There was a midwife, the consultant and a student in the room, all looking at the info...

Anyway, consultant said "HDN" was my baby...so I can see that there is GOOD news in this data! Though - if I should need a blood transfusion (just in this pregnancy? forever?) - I read that it's harder to find an exact match. Really, really hard? Or just a bit tricky?! My head is spinning!

Mears - you are right, I will call. My head's too full of scary scenarios right now not to!

Scorpio! - I'm impressed that you just happen to have a few midwifery books lying around to check!

Hi I am a midwife as the name suggests (if alias works!) I looked after a woman with anti m antibodies a while ago, she was told by the haematologist that lots more women have blood tests which show up abnormal antibodies nowerdays because the blood tests are now so good that they pick up all sorts of things that are not necessarily going to cause any problems. Anyway there are lots of different antibodies some of which cause more problems than others, anti m is not problematic to the baby, just to the mum if she were to need a transfusion. Just remember that very few women need emergency blood transfusions, the vast majority of women who need transfusions after childbirth do so a few days later with plenty of time to find the right blood. Even if you did need an emergency bt they have always got some O negative blood on the labour ward which can be given to anyone, I think even people with antibodies. You might even find that when you have your next lot of bloods taken you don't have any trace of any antibodies anyway! Hope this reassures

Dear Nonscarymidwife - feeling VERY much more reassured. Thank you!

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to reply - it means alot. Am hopeful of a good night's sleep! xxx

Right it is easier now to work this out now that you have posted the result in full. As nonscareymidwife had said the antibody will not affect the baby causing HDN (haemolytic disease of the newborn), but it can cause problems with crossmatch. There are a vast number of antibodies out there that show up on some occasions but not on others.
When your blood test is repeated at 28 weeks it may not be there, however the sensible thing to do is also to send a sample when you are in labour for the lab to crossmatch you 'just in case'. This is just because it sometimes takes longer when there is an antibody present. When there are crossmatch issues then blood is obtained from the regional blood transfusion centre. In my area the regional blood transfusion centre is in Glasow which is 40 mins travel distance away - hence why crossmatch takes longer. O negative blood is available in emergency situations.

Bottom line is not to worry about it as it will not affcet your pregnancy.