ST. LOUIS - Mercy hospitals across the Midwest now offer new moms the opportunity for their placentas to continue supporting life well after the birth of a baby. Through the Beginnings and Blessings program, Mercy moms can opt to donate their birth tissue for research and to help others.
In utero, a placenta supports life by providing essential oxygen and nutrients to the developing baby, removes waste from the baby’s blood, produces hormones to help the baby grow and passes immunity from mom to baby. After birth, placentas are often discarded as medical waste even though they have been shown to be helpful in treatment of wounds, burns and other conditions.
“Our patients expressed interest in helping others by donating tissues, such as the placenta, when they are no longer needed,” said Dr. Margaret Marcrander, Mercy St. Louis chief of staff and practicing OB/GYN, who championed the donation program. “By offering the option to donate, we enable our patients to have successful birth plans while helping future patients.”
Newborn tissue donation reduces medical waste while helping other patients in many ways.
“Chronic, nonhealing wounds can have life-altering impacts for patients,” said Dr. David German, wound care and plastic surgeon with Mercy Hyperbaric and Wound Care in St. Louis. “The placenta contains specialized tissues in two layers that promote healing. I have seen dramatic improvement in chronic wounds that decrease in size and heal with the help of skin grafts created with placental tissue.”
Donating newborn tissue is done at no cost for patients and can potentially benefit up to 100 people. Mercy hospitals in Joplin and Springfield, Missouri, will launch programs later in May, with Arkansas and Oklahoma hospitals launching later this summer.
Cardin said, “It was easy. It’s no money out of my pocket and all I had to do was sign a form. It was a simple good deed to help others.”
