Heather wrote:

>>>A Rh neg  C antigen mother has given birth to a baby 6 wks pre-term.

>>>Her colostrum appeared blood stained and she was told to discard it.

Yeow!  I had to chime in on this one.  I am an Rh sensitized mom.  I
didn't realize Rhogam had failed after my second son's birth so my dh and
I happily decided to have a third baby.  I found out that I had D, C and
G antibodies during a routine OB blood screen early in my pregnancy.  My
baby did suffer severe anemia before birth and had an interuterine blood
transfusion.  He suffered a very rare complication of the transfusion and
Evan was born via emergency c-section on June 18th at 31.5 weeks
gestation.  He spent six weeks in the NICU at the University of
Washington Medical Center in Seattle.  He received all my colostrum and
breastmilk from the beginning.  They did delay putting anything in his
stomach for about 24-36 hours because, I was told, Rh babies suffering
anemia can sometimes have slightly more immature GI tracts (I'm fuzzy on
this...I was in a kinda whacky emotional/physical state at that time :-)
).  He had a full exchange transfusion 12 hours after birth due to a very
fast rising bilirubin.  When he did receive nutrition in his stomach it
was all my expressed colostrum and my breastmilk.  He never received
formula.  He did great and was discharged four weeks ago.  He's
completely healthy now.

Now, I didn't have visible blood in my colostrum but my understanding,
through searching the Lactnet archives, is that D antibodies are
destroyed in the baby's gut.  From what I've learned of Rh disease, I
would not expect that C antibodies would be any different than D
antibodies....C is just more rare.  To me, the risks of formula would
outweigh the *potential* risks of the blood in the breastmilk.

Oh, let me take this opportunity to applaude the fabulous Lactation
Services staff at the UW in Seattle:  Ginna, Christy, Barb, Barb and
Nancy.  They are wonderful.  And the NICU staff is equally fabulous.  I
was supported 100% throughout our stay there.  It doesn't get any better
than those folks.

Kathleen Salisbury, LLL Leader, LLL of Washington  ([log in to unmask])
Mom to James (2-25-95), Reed (6-9-97) and Evan (6-18-01)
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