Doesn't every mommy out there who is expecting get the
"Bank your baby's cord blood for a wad of cash" pamphlet?
If you missed that one I'll send you mine I have plenty of them.
~BUT~
What if someone said "Hey there little momma, Wouldn't you rather donate this blood to us rather than just chuck it in the trash?"
"Why?", you might say.
"Well, Your contribution to the trash is actually a valuable asset to medicine!! Cord blood can change some one's life! Umbilical cord is rich with blood-forming cells! Why trash it when you could just give it to someone with a life threatening disease like leukemia or lymphoma who needs a transplant to survive.
"AND- the cells in cord blood are NOT "embryonic" stem cells like many people mistakenly think!"
"Who does this!" you wisely ask.
"Why the National Marrow Donor Program!", of coarse!
"They have a network of public cord banks. The blood can be used in research by the National Marrow Donor Program to study new transplant results, for trial applications on patients, and as a way to lessen rejection of any kind of transplants those who are very sick receive. "
You need to think of this before your 34th week so you can fill out the forms to make sure your cord blood qualifies.
PLEASE Tell everyone who is expecting to visit:
We do not have a local donor program in Arizona right now so you need to click here on the info for CRYOBANKS International so you can fill out an application and they will send out a kit to your doctor and they pay to ship the blood to them selves.
*Remember to ask your doc and make sure that he or she DOES NOT charge a fee to collect the blood*
Just a small bit of planning can make a BIG difference!!
I called and talked to the L&D department of Mercy Gilbert and also talked to the lab techs there and so far only one of their patients have ever thought a head to do this!!!
WHAT?!?!?!
What have you got to lose? a stamp?
Your sitting on the computer anyways wishing this pregnancy was over... So why not save a life!
If you need a stamp let me know!!! :)
2 comments:
Roseanne,
My sister is alive today because of a bone marrow transplant. It wasn't from an umbilical cord, but from someone who had registered with the national bone marrow donor registry. None of our family memebers were compatible with her blood so they had to go the registry. If your not pregnant, but would like to possible save someone's life you can go to the website and find out more about getting yourself on the registry.
Monica Olson
I was looking for something like this when I was pregnant with Hailey! Thanks for the link, it made me really sad to think of how useful cord blood is and how they were just throwing it out.
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