A newborn born with erythroblastosis should be attended to immediately by a pediatrician who is prepared to perform an exchange transfusion at once if required.
Because antibody production does not usually begin in a previously unsensitized mother until after delivery, erythroblastosis in subsequent children can be prevented by giving the mother an injection of Rhogam within 72 hours of delivery.
Erythroblastosis fetalis can be predicted before birth by determining the mother's blood type.
Erythroblastosis fetalis overwhelms the removal system, and high levels of bilirubin accumulate, causing hyperbilirubinemia, a condition in which the baby becomes jaundiced.
In many cases of blood type incompatibility, the symptoms of erythroblastosis fetalis are prevented with careful monitoring and blood type screening.
Incompatibility between the Rh blood types of mother and child (mother Rh negative, baby Rh positive) can result in severe anemia in the baby (erythroblastosis fetalis).
Maternal-fetal incompatibilities of ABO blood types leading to neonatal erythroblastosis are less severe and less common than those of the Rh factor.
Nevertheless, erythroblastosis is a very serious condition for approximately 4,000 babies annually.
Reacting to the anemia, the fetal bone marrow may release immature RBCs, or erythroblasts, into the fetal peripheral circulation, causing erythroblastosis fetalis.