Cord Blood Banking
A Simple and Important Decision
Immediately after your baby is delivered, the umbilical cord, the lifeline, which has connected your baby to you for nine months, is clamped and cut. Thus, begins your newborn’s life as a somewhat separate and independent person. Your doctor or midwife will remain with you and wait for the placenta that is attached to your womb to separate and be delivered a few minutes later, along with the rest of the umbilical cord. Your health care team will then make sure you are doing well while you are enjoying the excitement of holding your new baby. In the past, the “afterbirth” was discarded as medical waste, but now in most communities your doctor or midwife will have asked you during your pregnancy what to do with this potentially useful material.
The placenta and remaining cord contain large numbers of blood-forming (hematopoietic) stem cells. There are enough of these “seeds” present in most umbilical cords to use for a transplant instead of bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells. Currently, over 70 diseases are treated with hematopoietic stem cells. These stem cells are not “embryonic” stem cells or controversial in any way. They are completely safe to collect and, once collected, properly processed and frozen (cryopreserved), these important stem cells remain safe for at least 20 years. So, what are your simple and important options?
There are three choices you can choose from as to what to do with the umbilical cord blood that can be collected after your baby is delivered. One choice is you can pay to have it stored in a private storage facility in case your child or a family member might need it in the years to come. Many companies offer this service for an initial fee of $1,000-2,000 and then an annual maintenance fee of $100-150. The chances of it being used for your child or family member are low, but new developments and clinical trials may make it more common over the next 10 or 20 years. Marketing can be aggressive by some companies, so ask questions and decide if you want to privately store based on all the facts. Make sure you choose an AABB accredited bank. The AABB is the organization that regulates and inspects blood banks. The cord blood bank will register you, provide you with a kit, and even arrange a courier to pick up and deliver the unit to them after it is collected. This is important because the stem cells should be processed, frozen and stored as soon as possible and, preferably, within 48 hours of delivery.
A second choice available to some women is they can choose to donate the umbilical cord blood (public banking); much like one donates blood to help others. This is free and should cost you nothing. The cord blood is collected and sent the same as it is for private storage. Most donated units are collected through a hospital program in collaboration an accredited public cord blood bank. You can ask you obstetrician if they participate in public donations. An excellent resource is the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), which works with their 22 accredited banks and coordinates the matching and distribution of units throughout the world. Only four public cord blood banks can accept donations collected from hospitals not directly associated with them. You must contact them prior to the 34th week of pregnancy to be screened to make sure you are medically eligible to donate and to get the proper kit to you to take with you to the hospital. The NMDP has contact information for those banks for these women interested in donating.
Finally, if you choose not to privately store and not to donate the unit, the third option you can pick is to have the umbilical cord blood discarded by the hospital or birthing center as medical waste. Since it contains blood, it must be properly handled and disposed of for safety reasons.
Learning about the three choices will help you make the right decision for you. Whichever one you decide on (private storage, public donation or discard), just taking the time to learn about cord blood banking will help you make the best decision for you and your new baby.