Thalassemia minor individual with partner whose genes are both normal: The baby's prospects

The child will never have Thalassemia Major because, for that to happen, inheritance of a defective gene from both parents is necessary. However, there is a one in four (25%) chance that the child will be a carrier. This means a 75% chance that the child will be normal, as far as this condition is concerned.

Folic acid in Thalassemia

Thalassemia major patients require regular folic acid supplements. Sometimes it has to be given in the form of injection. It is an essential part of the long-term therapy.

Those with Thalassemia minor will need it to a much less extent. However, during pregnancy, it is strongly recommended that they take regular supplements of at least 5 mg daily. If iron reserves are found to be depleted, this will be taken alongside.

Labor and delivery for the mother with Thalassemia major

As mentioned before, pregnancy with Thalassemia major is a rare occurrence and therefore experience is inevitably lacking. However, common sense dictates that cesarean delivery may be a sensible option, to obviate the need for the strain that labor and delivery entail.

Labor and delivery for a Thalassemia minor woman

These individuals are overall quite healthy and no special measures are called for or instituted.

Diagnosing Thalassemia before birth

Quite early prenatal diagnosis of beta-Thalassemia can be made. This may be as early as twelve to thirteen weeks through the performance of placental biopsy or CVS (chorionic villi sampling).

In CVS, a tiny portion of the developing placenta is aspirated using a needle which is inserted either through the cervix or the abdominal wall. This is done under direct ultrasound guidance. The DNA of the collected cells is analyzed to establish whether the fetus is affected or not.

CVS does carry some risks. The most important is the risk of miscarriage as a direct consequence of the procedure. This risk may be as high as 1 - 2%

There is also the theoretical possibility of getting erroneous results. This can occur through contamination of the sample by maternal cells. However, specialist laboratories do have elaborate procedures to minimize this and, in practice, this kind of error is very rare indeed.

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