Boy's life saved by blood transfusion in the womb

A mother whose unborn baby needed blood transfusions while still in the womb said she had no idea such a procedure was possible.

Laura Fricker, from Weston-super-Mare in North Somerset, was pregnant with her son Sebastian, now 8, when doctors discovered he was severely anaemic and required two transfusions in utero.

"I absolutely had no idea that this could even happen, I'd never ever heard of babies having transfusions," she said.

She is speaking about her experience as the NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) service says it faces an annual shortfall of more than 200,000 donors to meet demand.

Fricker was 14 weeks pregnant with Sebastian when she contracted parvovirus B19 from her five-year-old daughter, who had slapped cheek syndrome.

The virus can cause foetal anaemia - when the level of red blood cells in a baby's blood are lower than normal - in a very small number of babies.

"I didn't think for a million years that anything would be an issue, I thought I'd be immune," said Fricker.

Intrauterine transfusion is an uncommon procedure, according to the NHSBT, and is only carried out in specific cases.

It is highly specialist and undertaken by experienced foetal medicine professionals - complications are rare and outweigh the risks of not carrying out the surgery.

Doctors can find out if a foetus has a risk of anaemia through an ultrasound scan.

Fricker had the procedure twice - at week 17 and 19 of her pregnancy - in which a needle was pierced through her abdomen and into Sebastian's bladder.

"You could see on the screen the baby wriggling around and the needle going in and then the bubbles of blood going in," she said.

"Even now, I get a bit emotional talking about it, because it's just, yeah, it's a pretty big thing.

"Anybody I talk to about it feels the same; they're just all absolutely blown away," she added.

More than 5,000 donations are required every day - around 1.8 million a year - with one million active donors required to help maintain a safe and reliable blood supply.

Vicki Hines, senior sister with NHSBT in Taunton, said there was an urgent need to find more blood donors.

"We're looking especially for younger donors who have got a lifetime of donation available to them," she said.

Hines said it could be a "life-changing experience" for people to receive transfusions - something she knows only too well herself.

She has Von Willebrand disease - an inherited blood disorder affecting the blood's ability to clot - and has required blood transfusions during surgery.

"So when I had my children, having caesarean sections, I had to have the clotting products [from donated blood] to make sure there was no haemorrhaging afterwards," she said.

Hines said it helped in her work with the NHSBT because she could "see both sides of the process," she added.

Anyone interested in becoming a blood donor can sign up via the NHSBT website.

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