Rohan Conn Lewis
born at 3.29pm on 28th September 1999 at 32 weeks. He
weighed just 3lb 8oz.
At 28 weeks gestation, abnormal antibodies were detected in my blood during
a routine blood test. These antibodies were forming due to me having Rhesus
Negative Blood, and yet my baby had inherited his Daddy's Rhesus Positive
blood. My body reacted by producing antibodies, which eventually started
attacking my baby's red blood cells, and slowly made him anaemic. Following
weekly hospital appointments and numerous tests and checks, an unrelated
problem was also identified showing that my baby had stopped growing and
that the only option was to deliver him early to give him the best possible
chance of survival. He was delivered at 32 weeks by emergency caesarean and
was taken straight to the ICNU at St. Michaels Hospital in Bristol. He
never needed to be ventilated, but spent 2 weeks on CPAP, was fed my breast
milk through a tube down his nose and underwent 5 days of intensive photo
therapy for severe jaundice.
Rohan was finally transferred to the low dependency unit at the hospital and
eventually allowed home on October 21st 1999, weighing 4lb 12oz.
He is now a happy healthy 2 1/2 year old, and although a little small for his age is perfectly normal in every way.
My next baby is due on 2nd November 2002, but similar problems have now been
discovered concerning the Rhesus antibodies and I am booked in for a
intrauterine transfusion this Friday (blood transfusion on baby whilst still
in my uterus). I have been given steroid injections to speed up development
of the baby's lungs should this procedure send me into early labour and have
also been warned to expect delivery within the next few weeks. I'm only 29
weeks so rather worried about the whole thing, but with my experience of
what happened with Rohan, I am confident things will all be ok in the end.
Written with the permissen of Rohan's mother Rachael Lewis