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Donate for Mothers is Vitalant’s blood drive program that honors the diverse experiences of moms through the act of blood donation. It is a special call to action to inspire and empower members of the community to host a blood drive or donate blood in honor of a mom in their life.

Blood transfusions help patients in need, and they are especially critical for women who experience pregnancy-related complications. In fact, 1 in 83 mothers need a blood transfusion after giving birth. Every day, Vitalant needs to collect more than 4,500 blood, platelet and plasma donations, delivering lifesaving blood products to patients in hospitals coast-to-coast.

LaDonna was 22 weeks pregnant with her first child when she contracted Fifth Disease, which caused her daughter Shantae to stop producing red blood cells. LaDonna only had five percent of her amniotic fluid and needed four intrauterine blood transfusions and 16 amniocenteses to save her daughter Shantae’s life.

LaDonna now competes for USA track and field, is a blood drive coordinator. She and Shantae are both blood donors.

"You may not know where your blood is going, but you know it's going to be used in the right way,” LaDonna said. “You never know when someone is going to need that blood."

Kristin was asleep in bed in the middle of the night when her water broke. Several minutes later she started having a seizure and losing blood. Her husband called the paramedics, and she was rushed to the hospital where she needed an emergency C-section. She suffered from a rare but life-threatening pregnancy complication called an Amniotic Fluid Embolism, and she needed 26 blood transfusions to save her life. When Kristin woke up in the ICU 48 hour later, the first thing she said to her husband was “why are all of these people in our bedroom?”

“I’m just grateful for every moment that I get to be here,” Kristin said. “There are so many people to thank. The paramedics, my husband for calling 911, the doctor that was on-call, but I truly would not be here today if it weren’t for blood donors. I had a massive hemorrhage where I was bleeding out and I would not be alive if those 26 units had not been on the shelf when I arrived at the hospital.” Pregnancy complications like Kristin’s are why we Donate for Mothers.

Robin needed multiple blood transfusions after giving birth to her son, Cameron, which caused her to lose about 40% of the blood in her body. It was because of volunteer blood donors that she was able to see her son grow up.

“To have the opportunity to be a mom and to still be there for my kids means the world to me,” Robin said. “There’s not a day that goes by that I’m not thankful for all of the people that donate blood every single day that change lives and save lives."