That's Life

There are scads of decisions to make when having a baby.

Things like whether to have a baby. And what to name it. And what color the baby's room will be. And what college he or she will attend.

Some choices are easy (take vitamins, avoid nuclear fallout), some controversial (circumcision), and some require a fair bit of thought (name her after your great aunt in Canterbury? Or after your cousin in Fargo?).

One of the choices we made regarding Sprout was easy, though. We knew from the start we'd be donating cord blood. When Bird was born, the only cord blood banking option was to do so privately, which meant only we could use it and we'd be paying storage fees. It wasn't an option.

This time, though, Redneck Central General Horspital and Sock Emporium had a recently formed program that we could take part in - a public cord blood bank!

I was, in a word, delighted.

Cord blood is terrific stuff. It's full of all kinds of usefulness, including stem cells (but NOT embryonic stem cells, source of all kinds of stuff including controversy) and fairy dust and unicorns. Google "stem cells" if you want to know what they're good for, but be prepared for some reading.

Or you can go to the National Marrow Donor Program Site and read about it a bit. They even have a way to see if your local hospital is participating - cool! So if you or someone you know may be expecting and don't plan to privately bank it...

Hey, you may save a life...and you might get a nifty t-shirt, too!

"Woo-hoo, I rock!!"

No one paid me anything to write this, by the way. Yeah, we got a t-shirt in the mail, but we didn't know about that until after we donated. I just happen to think this is a good thing to do with a seriously limited but valuable resource.