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It is estimated that less than 1ml of fetal blood is lost to the maternal circulation during normal labour in around 96% of normal deliveries. [1] [2] The loss of this small amount of blood may however be a sensitising event and stimulate antibody production to the foetal red blood cells, an example of which is Rhesus disease of the newborn.
During pregnancy, there is normally a barrier between maternal and fetal blood called the placenta, a temporary organ that connects a mother’s uterus to the umbilical cord to provide nutrients and oxygen to the fetus. However, in certain circumstances, small amounts of fetal blood cells may enter the mother’s circulation.
Hypertensive disease of pregnancy, also known as maternal hypertensive disorder, is a group of high blood pressure disorders that include preeclampsia, preeclampsia superimposed on chronic hypertension, gestational hypertension, and chronic hypertension. [3] Maternal hypertensive disorders occurred in about 20.7 million women in 2013. [1]
Eclampsia is the onset of seizures (convulsions) in a woman with pre-eclampsia. [1] Pre-eclampsia is a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy that presents with three main features: new onset of high blood pressure, large amounts of protein in the urine or other organ dysfunction, and edema.
Hypercoagulability in pregnancy is the propensity of pregnant women to develop thrombosis (blood clots) such as a deep vein thrombosis with a potential subsequent pulmonary embolism. Pregnancy itself is a factor of hypercoagulability (pregnancy-induced hypercoaguability), as a physiologically adaptive mechanism to prevent post partum bleeding. [7]
Hemoglobin F is found in fetal red blood cells, and is involved in transporting oxygen from the mother's bloodstream to organs and tissues in the fetus. It is produced at around 6 weeks of pregnancy [1] and the levels remain high after birth until the baby is roughly 2–4 months old. [2]
Exposure to fetal blood cells that can cause RhD alloimmunization can happen during normal pregnancy and delivery, miscarriage, amniocentesis, cordocentesis, chorionic villus sampling, external cephalic version, or trauma. [3] [8] 92% of women who develop an anti-D during pregnancy do so at or after 28 weeks gestation. [11] [9] [12]
Chorionic hematoma is the pooling of blood between the chorion, a membrane surrounding the embryo, and the uterine wall. [2] It occurs in about 3.1% of all pregnancies , [ 2 ] it is the most common sonographic abnormality and the most common cause of first trimester bleeding .