[cgk]

:( See that's why I still remember THAT from giving birth. Because I was nervous about them taking blood from her for THEIR use and not hers, or mine. That whole cannibal thing on a side level. I wish belatedly I had just asked for it. Though I'm sure they would have pointed me to some paper I signed for hospital admissions (UCLA no less), where I granted permission for them to take it.

Before I even gave birth I was reading ads on the baby pages about Saving Your Baby's Cord Blood: Banks and such. I looked into one, but it was beyond our financial situation.

[MHGinTN]

Your baby made that cord blood in her own 'self-constructed' placenta. During the course of her life in your womb, she made lots of blood, both for inside her developing survial mechanism (for when she would be exiting your womb) and for her own survival while in your womb, to receive nourishment and exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide through your life giving body. That her cord blood may help others born and unborn is a good thing.

I'm trying to find out if there is extensive research using the discarded placentas! Think of what an amazing trick your baby accomplished to protect herself from tissue rejection by your body when she was but an early embryonic functioning integrated whole human being!