Hi All,

I will ask my nurse this, but wanted to get your take on blood type. It's listed for donor in the pool at my clinic. Is it something I should be paying attention to? If so, how do I know which types to look for or steer clear of? Is it an issue of compatibility with my type? With my DH's? Both?

Just curious. Thanks!

No concern unless you are no tell!

If you and husband are both rh- then you may prefer a donor who is also rh- for health reasons (not sure how important this is these days). Otherwise, if you are 100% no tell, look at this chart for your blood types and find a donor who will produce the same possibilities in children. For example if you are A+ and husband is B+, you can in theory (not knowing if you are AO or AA and if he is BO or BB) produce any blood type child and so any donor blood type is fine. But if you are A+, husband is O+, and potential donor is B+, there's a good chance you'll have a child who could not genetically belong to you both. Does this matter to you? Being single, blood type was pretty unimportant to me but if I wanted to "retrofit" my O+ and B+ kids to a potential partner, as an A+, he'd have to be B+ or B-. If it doesn't matter to you and you are RH+, the sky is the limit.

...that had a compatible type as myself to not raise any red flags if my BT and the future child/ren's BT was known. That was because we are no-tell (maybe permanently). She actually ended up having my BT.

If you get a donor with a different RH factor then yourself, you might need the shot so your body accepts the baby during pg.

What is the shot? What does it call? I really want to know, I don't ask for the donor blood type although I am no tell.

It's not a big deal. If a woman has Rh- blood and her baby has Rh+ blood, sometimes the woman can build immunities against future Rh+ babies and have difficulties in the future pregnancies. This shot keeps you from doing that. Anytime the mom is Rh-, they ask about the dad's Rh factor (85% of people are Rh+).

I looked for a donor with the same blood type as DH and me because I wanted to have the option of being no-tell.

My clinic gave me a chart of blood type possibilities. You can also look that stuff up on line. Just in case you are no-tell and you want your baby to match what you and your partner would have if you would have combined his and your blood types together. Health wise I was told it made no difference. It is only an issue if you want to keep the issue of using a donor a secret. If your DH was an O and you were an A and the baby turned out to be a B then the child would quickly figure it out that either his mom or dad were not genetically related to him/her. Well I guess you could always lie about your own blood type to your child or not tell them, say you don't remember or don't know. Well just something to think about.

We are no tell (for now at least and possibly for ever) so it was important that the resulting blood type could feasibly have come from our combination. The first two attempts with two different donors, the donors were the same blood type as DH. Our third, and successful attempt, the donor had my blood type. I don't think it matters in terms of success levels, its just personal preference. Having said that, I had an exciting feeling about our third attempt as soon as I heard the donor was my blood type. For me it somehow felt better on an emotional level.
Good Luck with your choices Hopeful.
Aoife

I also picked a donor with my blood type and even though I was told it makes no difference from a medical viewpoint, emotionally I like the idea that her and I share the same blood type. We also share the same eye color, body type and skin color. I wanted to have as many things in common as possible.

We are "tell" (not shout-it-from-the-rooftops kind of tell, but our close friends and family know) so these considerations had not occurred to me. Many thanks!

I am 0+, dh B+, I used A+ donor and babes are A+. It doesn't worry me at all.