Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Easiest Donation You'll Ever Make

Ten years ago I did a research presentation for one of my biology classes on cord blood donation to support stem cell and treatments for many diseases. Since a full decade has passed, I assumed that cord blood donation would now be a routine procedure when giving birth.

Boy, was I ever naive to think that something cost free and pain free that can save lives - and if not done simply ends up in the garbage - would become a common practice. Silly me.

The nurse teaching the prenatal class said it wasn't available unless you're doing the thing where you pay a small fortune to have it privately banked. I just want to donate it for research and/or public use. WHY is that so hard? For several weeks I've been quite frustrated and not sure how to proceed.

I brought it up at my check-up today and my midwife said that she literally received information on an organization I can donate to yesterday, and had I asked the question any sooner she would have had to tell me it wasn't possible.

I rushed home and checked their requirements, and luckily I am still outside the 4 week minimum before my due date to start the process.

So, if anyone out there is pregnant (or knows of someone who is), please consider donating your cord blood to a public bank. You could save the life of a child with leukemia or other heritable disease.

If you're in the Chicago area, you can visit www.givcord.org to learn more.

3 comments:

jbmmommy said...

Unfortunately I found out about it at week 37. If I can ever convince my husband to have another, I'll be contacting them! Great thing you'll be doing for so many reasons.

Trisaratops said...

Awwww shoot.

Too late for me. :(

I looked into banking and my jaw hit the floor when I saw how expensive it was. Definitely not something we can afford right now, which is pretty sad. For the next one, I will definitely do this! Thanks for sharing!

Sixteen Chickens said...

What a nice thing to do for somebody else!