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Rh Incompatibility Abigail Westmoreland
A few years ago, I became unexpectedly pregnant. I was always careful, and I never expected that a child would be something that I would want. However, after a month or so of doctor’s visits and seeing the tiny mass of cells smaller than a chicken nugget, I started to warm up to the idea of being a mother. A routine doctor visit at the beginning of my second trimester noticed a crucial element missing: the heartbeat. While the doctor told me that it was indeed unusual to lose the baby post twelve week gestation, he assured me that there was nothing I did wrong. I was numb as he calmly explained to me the next steps, that the miscarriage and passing of the fetus should happen naturally on its own, and that I could experience “period-like” cramping. In actuality, the next twelve hours would be the most painful, both physically and emotionally, I had yet to experience. Truthfully, I don’t remember much of the next few days following the miscarriage. I was expected back at my doctor’s office, to check-in and make sure that things had gone smoothly. Routine blood work had revealed (too late) that the reason for my miscarriage was due to something called the Rh factor.
