September 2014 Moms

Cord Blood Donation

I haven't seen anything lately regarding cord blood donation. As a FTM, I asked my OB about having the option to donate. It turns out that the hospital I will be delivering at do not have a relationship with a cord blood bank, so if I want to donate, I have to set it up myself. She said that mom-to-bes that set something p will usually get a kit from whatever cord bank for the delivery team to put the cord blood in, then it needs to be shipped back or something.

Does anybody have experience setting up a donation outside of the hospital? If so, how did you go about it and which cord blood bank did you use? I hate the idea that my hospital is just going to dispose something that could potentially save someone's life!


Re: Cord Blood Donation

  • I *think* if you are going to donate it yourself you need to do it through one of the private banks. The public ones (bethematch.org etc) do not operate at a hospital near me at all so that is not an option to use them I have been told.

    Once I was told that, I stopped looking into it because we figured private bank=$$ that we don't have. Instead we have researched delayed cord clamping and will be taking advantage of that.

    I hope you find some answers better than what I have, but I thought I would share what little knowledge I have
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  • You will take the kit to the hospital with you and it your responsibility to take care of it and watch over it like a hawk because it can and will be forgotten or overlooked by the nursing staff. Keep in mind, even if you're donating, you are responsible for the cost which can be pricey.
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  • FYI: You can delay cord clamping AND donate/bank.
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  • Our hospital doesn't participate in cord blood donation either, disappointingly. I looked into bethematch.org and signed up to be paired with a public bank that needed donations. Unfortunately, the bank I was paired with wanted a bunch of blood tests that my doctor was not willing to sign off on, as he felt they weren't medically necessary and didn't want to be responsible for ordering them. He said if I wanted I could try to get the bank to order the tests, but since the bank is in Florida, that wasn't going to work for me. My doctor recommended I check out lifebankusa.com, which I did, but they are currently only accepting donations from NJ and NY, and I'm in PA, so that's out for me too. I wish we could donate, but it doesn't seem like it's going to happen this pregnancy. Maybe for our next baby cord blood donation will be more widespread and our hospital will be a participant -- I hope so!
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