Host and Allo Hope Foundation founder Bethany Weathersby tells the story of Lucy, her daughter, who passed from HDFN. Her loss sparked the blog Losing Lucy and Finding Hope, which grew into a resource for alloimmunized mothers seeking help and support. Lucy’s loss gave Bethany the drive to advocate for alloimmunized moms and HDFN babies around the world, and to advocate for the lives of her future children (more on that in Part 2). Lucy’s life has continued to impact the lives of countless babies with HDFN.

Note that since the time of this recording, Allo Hope Foundation has changed its recommendation such that a critical titer for Kell is any titer (previously 4), consistent with the ACOG Practice Bulletin, available here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29470342/

Episode themes: 

• Diagnosis of alloimmunization
• Family life during an alloimmunized pregnancy
• The life saving power of advocacy
• Severe, early HDFN
• Fetal death, stillbirth  and grief

Terminology used in this episode: 

• PSV: the measurement gained from the MCA Doppler ultrasound. It is the maximum velocity (sometimes called Pmax) that blood is moving through the middle cerebral artery. Anemic blood flows faster than nonanemic blood. The PSV is used to calculate the Multiples of the Median (MoM) value to check for anemia.
• MoM: The result of the calculation to see if the baby is anemic. The peak systolic velocity (PSV) and gestational age are used to calculate the MoM. A result of 1.3 indicates mild anemia. Numbers of 1.5 or higher indicate moderate to severe anemia and signals the need for an intrauterine transfusion or delivery. Lucy’s was 2.5

Allo Hope Terminology Library https://allohopefoundation.org/library/terminology/

Links in this episode: 

https://losinglucyandfindinghope.com/

Research for this episode provided by Bethany Weathersby and Molly Sherwood of the Allo Hope Foundation. Find more information at https://allohopefoundation.org

The Allo Podcast is produced and edited by https://www.mediaclub.co