Rh Incompatibility

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 acrucial 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.

The Rh (rhesus blood type) factor is a protein that is found on the surface of red blood cells. A person with this particular protein would be classified as Rh positive, whereas a person without this protein would be Rh negative. This protein is inherited through genetics and usually is only a problem in a case of Rh incompatibility. This occurs when the mother is Rh negative and the fetus is Rh positive, essentially resulting in the mother’s red blood cells attacking the fetal blood cells. An injection called RhoGAM, a sterilized solution from human blood invented in the late sixties, can and should be given to women who may want to become pregnant. This injection can prevent antibodies from forming and attacking the Rh positive proteins on the fetal blood cells.

I was already struggling so soon after the miscarriage to fully come to terms with understanding that it was not my fault. It was even more difficult to forgive myself after learning that my body had labeled my baby as a sickness, a foreign invader that was unwelcome in my body. The subsequent shame was tremendous. I felt helpless, and I felt guilty. There must have been something I could have done. How could my body not realize that such a natural process was not a threat? There must have been something wrong with me. Babies are simply not incompatible with their mothers. However, without indulging too much in comparative suffering, we are oftentimes not given much in the way of closure. The reality of incompatibility was an unwanted explanation, but an explanation nonetheless. This realization was also the first step in forgiving and giving myself much needed empathy to heal.

Dr. Brené Brown defines shame as “the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love and belonging—something we’ve experienced, done, or failed to do makes us unworthy of connection.” Physically healing from a traumatic experience is often expected to facilitate the emotional healing from a traumatic experience. However, I believe that shame is best combated through genuine connection and empathy from others, as well as from yourself.

-Abigail Westmoreland is a second-year graduate student from Wilmington, NC, pursuing an MA in Medical and Science Writing.-