Donating Cord Blood

As a parent, are you considering donation of cord blood at the birth of your next baby?

The process of cord blood donation is relatively simple when compared to the process of traditional bone marrow collection in children or adults.

The donation of cord blood can help patients who have serious illnesses such as leukaemia and lymphoma who require cord blood transplantation.

It is a procedure that does not interfere with the birth process of the baby or cause any pain, as the cord blood is taken after the baby is born, from the umbilical cord.

The procedure generally is:

1. If you are interested in cord blood donation as an expecting mother aged over 18 (16 in some states), you should contact your local hospital to find out if they are a hospital that participates in cord blood donation.

There is a list of participating hospitals at www.marrow.org

Not all hospitals have facilities for cord blood donation so check out whether this is available near you.

2. You will be required to fill in a questionnaire to check your general state of health, fill out a consent form, and will be required to give a sample of blood to test for infectious diseases.

3. If everything is suitable, then the cord blood donation is arranged at birth.

Ideally, find out more and make arrangements in the early to mid part of the pregnancy to allow time for these tests to proceed before the cord blood donation.

Click here to read more about collecting cord blood and cord blood banks.