It’s the morning before your C-section, and someone wants you to donate your placenta

January 2021

Frances Verter, PhD

Placenta donation is a form of organ donation1. After birth (pun intended), the placenta and other birth tissues that are no longer needed to support the baby are expelled by the mother’s body and would typically be discarded. But birth tissues contain valuable cells, including stem cells, as well as proteins, exosomes, etc. They can be sent to laboratories for processing into medicinal products. Currently in the United States, donated placentas are routinely used for drug testing, disease studies, and wound dressings. Registered clinical trials are studying additional applications of birth tissues for a wide variety of diagnoses, including arthritis, autism, coronavirus, and more2-8.