Rh disease
Rh disease is the only immune cause of hydrops fetalis. Erythroblastosis fetalis, also known as Rh disease, is a hemolytic disease of newborns. Pregnant mothers do not always have the same blood type as their child. During birth or throughout the pregnancy, the mother may be exposed to the infant's blood. In the event of a pregnancy where the fetus has the Rh-D blood antigen and the mother does not, the mother's immune system will respond to the red blood cells as foreign and create antibodies against the Rh-D antigen on the fetal blood cells. Rh disease develops in the event of a second pregnancy where the mother's immune system launches an attack, via IgG, against the infant's Rh-D positive blood cells. The immune response results in hemolysis of fetal red blood cells causing severe anemia.