Resource Library

The Allo Hope Foundation and AllStripes are partnering to create a database that will enable multiple Alloimmunization & HDFN research projects! We’re looking for patients/families willing to contribute their de-identified medical records to make this effort as strong as possible. Your medical journey can accelerate the development of new treatment and monitoring methods for alloimmunization & HDFN. Because these are rare conditions, researchers need more information directly from patients and their families to fully understand the condition.

The Prenatal Decision Tree can be used as a step by step guide through the proper course of prenatal care for alloimmunized patients according to current medical literature. If your care plan differs from this, discuss it with your physicians and seek a second opinion if needed. For additional references and a more in-depth explanation of the information in this tree, please see our Providers page.

A history of alloimmunization from the 1600s to present. Discover the advances in testing, treatment, and outcomes for patients with Hemolytic Disease of the Fetus and Newborn (HDFN) over the past 400 years.

Fast Facts Fetal Anemia: An inadequate amount of red blood cells for a developing fetus. Lab Values: Fetal anemia is a hemoglobin value that is more than 2 SD below the mean or a hematocrit of <30%. Anemia is an inadequate amount of red blood cells. Anemia is caused when maternal alloantibodies cross into the…

Fast Facts Anemia: An inadequate amount of red blood cells. Normal Lab Values: Hemoglobin at 0-6 months of age 12.7-18.3 g/dL (females) and 15.7-18.6 g/dL (males). Hematocrit at 0-6 months of age 37.4-55.9% (females) and 43.4-56.1% (males). Anemia is an inadequate amount of red blood cells. Anemia is commonly evaluated by checking the child’s hemoglobin…

Fast Facts Hyperbilirubinemia: High levels of biliurbin. Normal Lab Values: Varies by age (in hours). Use Peditools or the charts below to view normal values. Infants with HDFN are either high risk (born before 38 weeks), or medium risk (born at 38 weeks). A common misconception is that if a mother’s antibody titers are low,…

Fast Facts Neutropenia: A reduced level of neutrophils, a specialized kind of white blood cell. Normal Lab Values: 6-26 x 10 9/L for newborns. Decreases to 1-9 x 10 9/L at 1 month of age. Neutropenia as a result of maternal alloimmunization has been documented since 1960 and still occurs in 45% of infants with…

Thrombocytopenia is another lesser-known complication of HDFN, affecting 26% of fetuses and infants with HDFN. The child’s body is so busy producing red blood cells to compensate for the ones destroyed by the antibodies, that it simply does not produce other blood cells including white blood cells (neutrophils), and platelets (thrombocytes). This can lead to thrombocytopenia – a low level of platelets.

Medical literature is clear – iron supplements will not help infants with Hemolytic Disease of the Fetus and Newborn (HDFN), and can actually be dangerous in some instances.