Some of the symptoms of Rh incompatibility in a baby include: SOURCES: Nemours Foundation: “Rh incompatibility.” American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists: “The Rh factor: How it can affect your pregnancy.”

Rh disease can cause severe anemia, jaundice, brain damage, and heart failure in a newborn.

Rh incompatibility effects during pregnancy Print.

The lack of the Rh factor isn’t considered a disease, as it doesn’t affect a person’s health. This test checks her blood type and Rh factor. Learn more about how the condition could affect your pregnancy.

But if Rh antibodies develop, they could be dangerous to a fetus during later pregnancies. Rh incompatibility occurs when a mother who is type Rh - (and has naturally occuring anti-Rh antibodies in her serum) gives birth to an infant who is Rh+. Blood is Rh-positive if red blood cells have the Rh factor and Rh-negative if they do not. Rh incompatibility generally occurs when a pregnant woman is Rh-negative and her baby is Rh-positive. Rh Incompatibility During Pregnancy.
As a consequence, blood from the fetal circulation may leak into the maternal circulation, and, after a significant exposure, sensitization occurs leading to maternal antibody production against the foreign Rh antigen. Rh alloimmunization occurs when maternal immune system is sensitized to D(Rh) erythrocyte surface antigens. The most common causes of maternal Rh alloimmunisation are blood transfusion and antepartum or intrapartum fetomaternal hemorrhage (abdominal trauma, abortion, ectopic pregnancy, invasive obstetric procedures, placental abruption, external cephalic version). This occurs when there are incompatible blood types during pregnancy, i.e.

the mother’s blood type (A, B, AB or O) is different than the baby’s, which could result in HDN in some cases. Rh incompatibility happens when an expecting mom is Rh-negative and her baby is Rh-positive. HDFN due to anti-D antibodies is the proper and currently used name for this disease as the Rh blood group system actually has more than 50 antigens and not only D-antigen.

This may cause bleeding, allergic reactions, or infections.

Rh incompatibility between mother and baby during pregnancy can be problematic and create serious risks. Rh incompatibility is when a mom is Rh negative and her baby is Rh positive, which can cause problems during pregnancy.


Larger text size Large text size Regular text size. There is a high probability of this happening if an Rh-positive father and Rh-negative mother have another child. Having an Rh negative blood type is not an illness and usually does not affect your health. After the first pregnancy, however, an Rh-negative mother becomes sensitized to an Rh-positive baby. More common than Rh incompatibility is ABO incompatibility during pregnancy.

Rh positive is the most common blood type.