Cord Blood Banks

There are an increasing number of banks that support cord blood storage, as the option of banking your child’s cord blood is becoming more well known.

Remember that the banking of cord blood may be done for two main reasons.

1. Firstly to save your child’s cord blood for potential use later on if your child ever has an illness such as leukaemia, resulting in a need for bone marrow or cord blood transplantation.

2. Secondly to donate your child’s cord blood to be stored in a cord blood bank for use by patients with serious illnesses needing a cord blood transplant. For cord blood banking for private use, this will incur a cost for the set up and for the storage.

It is free to donate cord blood for public use however.

In terms of cord blood banks, they generally call into the category of:

• Private cord blood banks that store blood for private use.
• Cord blood banks that store cord blood for public use and are registered with the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) in the US. This is a database of available cord blood and bone marrow for medical treatment.
• Cord blood banks that store cord blood for public use but are not registered with the NMDP and have their own database.

When considering cord blood banks for private use, consider:

1. Whether the cord blood bank accredited with the American Association of Blood Banks.

The accreditation process is paid for by the cord blood bank and the bank is inspected at specified intervals to ensure they meet accreditation rules. These include whether the bank follows procedures and does adequate screening on the mother, blood tests on the mother to exclude infectious diseases and testing of cord blood samples.

2. Also consider their collection, transport and storage procedure.

How is the cord blood collected and transported to the banking facility? Is it by medical transport companies with experience in cord blood transport? Are the storage facilities quality controlled?

3. As well, for long term security, is the cord blood bank well established?

Several blood cord banks have videos on cord blood facts and banking procedures.

So check the details of the various companies in this new medical industry of cord blood banking.