Here’s What You Need to Know About Birth Tissue Donation

Written by Zoe Engels, Contributing Writer and Editor 

Did you know that just ONE donated placenta and umbilical cord can help approximately 75 people? We’re amazed by this incredible ratio, too! Let’s talk about the life-changing benefits and importance of birth tissue donation. 

According to Donate Life America, the benefits of a birth tissue donation include but are not limited to non-healing wound treatment, burn treatment, reconstructive procedures that both promote healing and reduce scarring, and spinal procedures that help relieve scar tissue-based pain. Birth tissue can be used across a wide spectrum of medical needs, treating diabetic ulcers, glaucoma, and osteoarthritis, to name a few. Essentially, grafts made from birth tissue can promote regenerative healing, helping reduce inflammation and scarring while facilitating an environment for healing. 

As a baby enters the world, there’s an opportunity to provide others with an improved quality of life or a second chance at life. Brenda King, the Manager of Donor Development and Communication at BioTissue, gave us more details about the impact of birth tissue donation via email. 

“Birth issue donation is important in offering hope and healing to those in need of regenerative therapies,” she said. “In most cases, these precious gifts go to waste as they are often discarded after birth simply because moms do not know there is an option to be a living donor of birth tissues. 95 percent of parents say ‘yes’ to birth tissue donation once informed of the simple donation process and their ability to help approximately 75 people through regenerative medicine.”

This donation process is safe, and there are no age restrictions on who can donate. Expectant parents are given the opportunity to provide their informed consent after being given the option of birth tissue donation and details through their OBGYN or at the delivery hospital. Next, parents fill out a questionnaire on their medical and social history followed typically by a blood sample from their admission blood draw at the delivery hospital. 

Safety always remains the top priority, with a technician present to obtain the birth tissues—including the placenta and umbilical cord—after the safe birth of the baby. The technician then packages the donation for delivery to a facility such as BioTissue, where King works, to be transformed into birth tissue allografts (i.e., a tissue transplanted from one person to another) of the highest quality. 

King told us more about her workplace and their accomplishments.

“BioTissue is the leader in innovative technologies using products derived from human Amniotic Membrane tissues and the leading provider of birth tissue allografts for Ocular and Surgical applications,” she said. “Since its inception in 1997, the Company has pioneered the clinical application of human placental tissues—more than 800,000 patients have been treated with BioTissue products and the Company’s groundbreaking scientific and clinical achievements have been documented in more than 390 peer-reviewed publications.”

In 2021, BioTissue, the manufacturing company, founded Sharing Miracles, the birth tissue donation program. Sharing Miracles plays a role throughout the entire donation process. The program, King explained, helps educate expectant parents on the benefits birth tissue donation provides patients who are in need of regenerative healing. She added, the program ensures that the birth tissue donation process is conducted with “the utmost levels of integrity and compliance to maximize the positive impact of the patients we serve.” 

“Sharing Miracles is where living legacies of hope and healing are born, linking the miracle of birth to regenerative medicine,” King said.

Learn more about Sharing Miracles on their website. 

While it’s important for students to learn about all types of organ, eye, and tissue donation, King said high school and college-aged students are in a life stage, approaching adulthood, that marks the perfect time for introducing them to the subject of birth tissue donation, whether the prospect of childbirth is in their future or they can share that information with their friends and family members who may choose to give birth.

If you’re interested in helping advocate for organ, eye, and tissue donation and introducing your community to the subject of birth tissue donation, visit sodanational.org/students to host an event or start a SODA chapter on your campus.