Pregnancy-related complications impact women in labor and delivery units across the U.S. every day. These patients may not be the ones we think about when we’re giving blood or hosting a blood drive, but their experiences can impact families for a lifetime. That’s one of the reasons why a group of passionate volunteers in Denver, CO launched Donate for Mothers, a service initiative focused on maternal health and healing through awareness and advocacy of pregnancy-related complications that oftentimes require blood transfusions for survival.
Some survivors, like Brie, go on to become ambassadors for blood donation, sharing their story and hosting blood drives with Vitalant. Others impacted by the trauma of patient blood loss during labor and delivery, like Dr. Vy Rossi, Denver-based Obstetrician and Donate for Mothers co-founder, create sisterhoods that build community, promote philanthropy and provide healing through education and service.
Of joining the cause to Donate for Mothers, Dr. Rossi says, “You’re the right person to host a blood drive and donate blood if you have ever cared for a patient with life-threatening bleeding. If you know or love someone who has received the life-giving benefit of blood products. Or if you simply love a mom, like your own mom, your wife or partner, sister, daughter or a friend. That’s all of us, right?”
In honor of mothers this May, blood drive coordinators, community volunteers, Vitalant staff, and doctors and nurses in hospitals throughout Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota joined forces to host 44 on-site and virtual blood drives, recruiting 150 first-time blood donors and collecting over 1,100 blood donations.
Their activism in support of mothers is making more moments possible for patients this summer, and you can too. To share your story and learn more about hosting a Donate for Mothers blood drive in your community, visit vitalant.org/DonateforMothers.
Group photo of Dr. Rossi, Dr. Larry Dumont (VRI) and Dr. Sally Berga at Vitalant’s Denver, Colorado donation center and VRI headquarters.