If an O pos mom has an antibody, let's say a Fya, and delivers an A pos baby, I would do a DAT on the cord and Fya and Fyb antigen typings on it as well. Additionally, if the DAT was positive on the cord, I would do an eluate on it, too, to see if it's Anti-A or Anti-Fya coating the cells. But as we discussed this today in the lab, I realized that I may be doing more work than is really necessary. Polling our coworkers revealed that everyone is approaching this a little differently, and there is nothing in our procedure manuals that says we have to anything more than a DAT on the cord and do electronic crossmatches with Fya negative red cells if transfusion is required. However, a lot of us remember doing all of the above "in the old days" (20 something years ago!) and wonder if this is another one of those things that fell into the category of being no longer necessary.
