Mercy hospitals across the Midwest now have the Beginnings and Blessings program for moms to donate their birth tissue for research and to help others. The birth tissue donation program is referred to as a healing gift.

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.

Newborn tissue donation reduces medical waste while helping other patients in many ways.

Donating newborn tissue is done at no cost for patients and can potentially benefit up to 100 people.