A 24-year-old woman has gone to the OB-GYN clinic for her first visit since she found out she was pregnant. The clinician tested her blood type along with the usual prenatal testing. On a follow-up visit, the woman was told that she is Rh negative. When asked what that means for her baby, the nurse explains that Rh-negative women lack RhD antigens on their erythrocytes but produce anti-D antibodies. As a result of this blood type,

Question

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In utero, the development of erythroblastosis fetalis (Rh incompatibility) results when Rh-negative women produce anti-D antibodies. In Rh-positive fetus, maternal anti-D antibodies will coat fetal RBCs containing RhD, allowing them to be removed from the fetal circulation by macrophage- and monocyte-mediated phagocytosis (destroying RBCs). RBCs are produced in the bone marrow, not the liver; therefore, answer C is incorrect.

A 24-Year-Old Woman Has Gone to the OB-GYN Clinic for Her