Fetal anaemia

Fetal anaemia is a rare condition which can result from a failure of production of fetal red blood cells, accelerated haemolysis, or fetal bleeding. The three most common causes are parvovirus B19 infection, red cell isoimmunisation and fetomaternal haemorrhage. All obstetricians are likely to encounter these clinical scenarios at some point, even if management is predominantly by fetal medicine specialists. All three topics have been covered in previous articles of this journal, but here are presented three real cases illustrating these causes of fetal anaemia, and emphasising again the key points.