A study of more than 1 million transfusion recipients does not suggest an increase chance of death when receiving red blood cells from women with a history of pregnancy.
Researchers analyzed data from the Recipient Epidemiology and Donor Evaluation Study-III (REDS-III), Kaiser Permanente Northern California health care system, and the Scandinavian Donations and Transfusions database from Sweden and Denmark. They found no significant associations between patient mortality and red blood cell transfusions from either the parous (women who have given birth), previously pregnant, and never-pregnant female donors or the donors of the opposite sex.
The finding does not suggest a change in red blood cell donation practices. The study, funded by NHLBI, appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association.