AN expectant mother from Shenzhen received several rounds of a highly demanding intrauterine transfusion to save her baby, who was critically anemic, in a Guangzhou hospital, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.

    The young mother, identified only as Ah Fang, recently gave birth to a healthy daughter at the Guangdong Provincial Maternity & Child Healthcare Hospital in Guangzhou, according to the report. She was the first mother to go through an intrauterine transfusion to rescue a fetus with serious anemia at the hospital, the report said.

    Although she was only 24 years old, this was not Ah Fang’s first pregnancy. The poor young mother had been pregnant four times, but the first two pregnancies ended in miscarriages.

    Ah Fang finally gave birth to a boy two years ago, but the infant also suffered from serious anemia and spent his first few weeks in a hospital receiving treatment.

    The young mother suffered again as her second child was diagnosed with anemia. An ultrasound examination conducted when the fetus was 26 weeks old showed that the fetus had many hydrops inside of its pleuroperitoneal cavity and was in great danger of dying before being born.

    In a last thread of hope, the couple went to Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong Pro-vince, to seek treatment. It was then that they found out that the fetus did not have the same blood type as the mother’s and was thus suffering from serious anemia.

    The only solution to save the baby was to conduct an intrauterine transfusion, which requires that extremely precise calculations, regarding the amount of blood and transfusion speed, be made before the surgeries.

    Since only a small amount of blood could be transfused each time, Ah Fang had to receive a total of five rounds of intrauterine transfusions over a six-week span. The fetus’ situation gradually improved with the transfusions.

    About a month later, Ah Fang gave birth to the baby girl, and both the mother and daughter were safe and sound with the standard amount of hemoglobin.

    Doctors suggested that women turn to professional medical institutions as soon as possible if they suffer from frequent miscarriages. (Zhang Qian)