Collaborative Post
On the run up to Christmas people often begin to think about good and charitable causes and November is a month full of awareness days and weeks. With this in mind I've decided to pick one close to my heart and bring back my old Charity Spotlight feature.
Writing about World Cord Blood Day takes me back five years! Back to when I was expecting out little boy! Wow, I can't believe it was that long ago?!
Anyway, as I sat with my cup of tea balancing on my bump, scrolling through social media on my phone, I spotted a post about donating your cord blood. It was something I hadn't heard about but on reading more into it I found that the cord blood could do amazing things.
Cord blood is rich in stem cells and can help treat over 80 diseases! There are new developments every single day and cord blood could be the answer for so many illnesses.
During my pregnancy our local maternity unit became part of the cord donation scheme and as I heard more about it I was keen to donate our cord. There are some restrictions if you've had fertility treatment and regular readers will know that we had some help to have our son, but as we'd avoided IVF we were still able to donate.
The process was incredibly simple and one of the cord donation team came to see me during the early stages of labour. They helped me complete the form, explained the process and most importantly that there was no pain or risk to the baby and I.
After Joseph was born the placenta and the remaining part of the cord were delivered, placed into a sealed container and whisked away. If I hadn't chosen to donate my cord this would have headed to the clinical waste bin. It's crazy to think that something that is regularly and routinely thrown away could do such amazing things!!
My labour was a bit of a blur but even after all these years I still think back to it and wonder what our cord did, it if helped anyone or saved lives.
World Cord Blood Day takes place on 15th November. To find out more about cord blood donation, the science and stats behind it take a look at this article by Smart Cells. You'll spot a quote form me too!
Mummy Snowy Owl
xx
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