(IUT's) Fetal blood transfusions

[Gracelett]

Hi all, I am wondering if there are others out there that are going/have gone through IUT's due to Rhesus disease. I am 21wk and I have known that I have antibodies from 8wks. I went for a doppler scan on Wednesday and the baby's scan was abnormal, as in her blood flow to her brain, indicating that she is going to be aneamic and will need an IUT soon.
I am wondering how early they stared you and how early you delievered? I have 2dds already, and my ds was stillborn (unexplained) last July ,so you can imagine my anxiety over this. What I suppose I want to know is: What are the chances of my baby surviving? Thanks to all responses, Pamela xxxx

Bump

Anyone?

I just want to bump this up. Any answers will be apprieciatedxxx

Hi, hope I can help. I haven't been through this myself but I am a paediatrician who has worked in a big unit that dealt with lots of babies undergoing in utero tranfusions so have some experience of the postnatal side of things and have had a look at some data for babies who underwent treatment for you.

It's not a risk free procedure, but leaving the disease untreated as you will know will cause massive problems for the baby. Out of over a hundred babies, in recent years IUT carried a risk of less than 1% of death to the baby, and out of all the live births the vast majority (nearly all) survived to discharge home. This means that, unless there are complications related to the transfusion itself, which gets safer all the time, your baby has an extremely good chance. From my reading most start undergoing IUTs at 26 weeks and the average gestation at delivery is around 35 weeks but some do need to be delivered earlier due to complications.

Once your little one is born they will have their blood tests monitored very closely for jaundice and anaemia, and will almost certainly require phototherapy (light treatment for jaundice) and folic acid for a few months (to help them produce new red cells). They might need blood transfusion(s) and a minority need to have more significant treatment (exchange transfusion, to replace the antibody-containing blood in their system and clear the jaundice with new, fresh donor blood) or other specific treatments. Even if this happens most do very well. The antibodies will take a few months to leave their system but barring complications following this they should be well.

Is this helpful? I hope I haven't overloaded you! Feel free to contact me if you want further info.

Good luck.

Gracelett,

Not me but a friend of mine has had to have this with both of her DC. She thought with the first she may have to have a section but in the end had a normal birth, not sure if she was induced a bit early but she was close enough to full term. Normal birth with the second as well.

Hope all goes well for you.