The Low Down on Umbilical Cord Blood Banking

by Ellen in Life and Learning / 01.23.09

When I had my first child in 2002, I read about banking my child’s cord blood and was immediately convinced that it would be an amazing gift to give my child and family. When I was expecting both of my children, I spent a lot of time researching the benefits of storing cord blood and the various cord blood storage options. I hope to save you time and get you well on your way with this information.

What is Umbilical Cord Blood?

Your baby’s umbilical cord blood is a valuable, rich source of noncontroversial stem cells. Currently, the stem cells in cord blood are used to treat over 70 diseases and growing. Stem cells, normally found in bone marrow, are the master cells that are responsible for producing the mature cells in our blood and immune system. They form the white cells that fight infection, the red cells that carry oxygen, the platelets that promote clotting and the cells of our immune systems.

Stem cell treatments and transplants have already been used for such wide-ranging diseases and conditions as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, leukemia, sickle cell disease, severe anemia and severe combined immunodeficiency. And experimentation for expanded uses of stem cells holds great promise. Current research is being conducted on the use of stem cells for the treatment of cardiac and neurological diseases, to name a few.

What is cord blood banking?

Cord blood banking is where you store your child’s cord blood in either a private or public cord blood bank for future use. If you donate your child’s cord blood, it goes into a public bank where it is stored for anyone to use. If you privately store your child’s cord blood, it is always available for your child or family to use.

When the cord blood is received by the storage facility, it is tested to see if it contains enough blood-forming cells. If it passes this initial test, it is HLA typed, frozen and stored in a liquid nitrogen freezer. Most private facilities use a cryogenic controlled-rate freezing process for long-term storage and special cryo bags that have separate storage compartments.

How do you collect cord blood?

Cord blood is taken at birth from the baby’s umbilical cord and the placenta. Doctors use a sterile cord blood collection kit to capture the blood immediately after the umbilical cord has been clamped and cut. This procedure must be done within 10 to 15 minutes after delivery to ensure viability. If you are planning to use a private cord blood storage bank, you will be responsible for bringing the collection kit to the hospital as well as notifying your OB or on-call OB that you plan to collect your child’s cord blood.

Who can use donated cord blood?

On any given day, more than 6,000 patients, their families and friends around the world are searching the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) Registry for a matching bone marrow donor or cord blood unit. These patients have leukemia, lymphoma and other life-threatening diseases that can be treated by a bone marrow or cord blood transplant.

If you donate cord blood to a public bank, the cord blood can be transplanted into any patient whose doctor selects the cord blood unit as the best match for that patient. The donated cord blood is not reserved for your family.

How do I donate cord blood?

If you wish to donate your baby’s cord blood, it is best to decide by the 34th week of pregnancy. You will need to find out if your delivering hospital is participating in the cord blood donor program by checking the list of participating hospitals found at the National Marrow Donor Program. If your hospital is not on this list, do not be discouraged; there are other ways that you can donate that are described at http://www.marrow.org.

I decided to use a private cord blood storage bank for both of my children. It is an expensive process to privately collect and store cord blood, but I felt like it would be worth it if we ever needed to use it. The cord blood can also be used for siblings and other family members. There is a 25% chance that one sibling’s cord blood will be a match to another sibling. Here is a list of what diseases are currently being treated with cord blood, but there are many more that are still being researched. Further, if a child is undergoing chemotherapy and radiation, and their immune system is suppressed, their own stem cells [extracted from their cord blood] can be used to make them well.

Good luck to you with this process. Deciding whether to privately store or donate is a personal decision. My personal recommendation, if you are indifferent or cannot afford to pay for private storage, is to make the extra effort to donate. Most cord blood is discarded as medical waste. It is crazy to think that extremely valuable, live saving stem cells are thrown away in the trash each day. Why? Because it is expensive to collect and ship cord blood and for most hospitals, it does come down to cost.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cord_blood_banking