Be the Match: Donate Your Baby’s Umbilical Cord Blood

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If not donated or saved on your own, a newborn’s umbilical cord blood is disposed of after the placenta is delivered, throwing away the potential for it to cure any of the thousands of patients fighting leukemia, lymphoma, and other blood diseases.

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Donation of your baby’s umbilical cord blood to a public cord blood bank is free, anonymous, and safe.

After giving birth, the cord blood can either be donated to a cord blood bank, stored in a family cord blood bank (where it is reserved for your own family for a fee), or if you don’t choose either of those options, the umbilical cord will be discarded after birth. Donation to a public cord blood bank is free, anonymous, and safe for your baby, as the donated blood is collected from the umbilical cord and not your baby, immediately after birth.

Cord blood is plentiful in blood-forming cells (not embryonic stem cells). Once collected, it is stored and available for any patient.ย A transplant of these cells replaces a patient’s unhealthy blood-forming cells with your baby’s cord blood that will grow into healthy new cells.

According to the National Marrow Donor Program, currently more than 25,000 patients around the world have received cord blood transplants, but there is huge potential to spread awareness of this option. Seven out of 10 people do not have a matching donor in their family and depend on the Be The Match Registry to find a match.

My sister-in-law, Amy Casey, is a new mom and a stem cell transplant coordinator at Cook Children’s Medical Center. After working as a hematology and oncology nurse for more than seven years, she has seen the impact that cord blood donations can have on the lives of children, teens, and young adults battling life-threatening diseases. When preparing to give birth this summer to her first baby, she said the decision to set up a donation of her baby’s cord blood was a no-brainer for her and my brother.

She said the pre-birth registration process was very easy. Be sure to tell your doctor between your 28th and 34th week of pregnancy that you’d like to donate. Because the hospital she delivered at didn’t have a cord blood donation process set up, she went to Bethematch.org and answered a few questions about her health and pregnancy. From there, a cord blood bank contacted her within 24 hours. She then filled out a formal questionnaire, and was found to meet all the criteria. She was sent a collection kit that she brought with her to the hospital when she delivered, having a point person to call or email along the way with questions.

During labor, the delivery room nursing staff and doctors read the kit’s instructions and were able to easily accommodate once Amy gave birth.

“You can always give them a friendly reminder during delivering that you are donating the cord so they don’t accidentally dispose of it out of habit,” Amy said.

We can all agree that hopefully a new habit of cord blood collection can exist.

After delivery, expect the medical staff to hand the completed kit back to you to arrange pick-up with your cord blood bank. In Amy’s case, after making a phone call, a FedEx courier came to the hospital about 24 hours after her baby’s birth for the kit. She found the pick-up procedure fairly easy as well, even with having my one-day-old nephew at the time.

“We all have the potential to save a life, starting at the very beginning of our little one’s life,” Amy said.

Click here to learn if you can donate cord blood.

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Colleen
Colleen, an Illinois native, and her husband, Aaron, met in 2001 during their freshman year at Texas Christian University and have been charmed by both each other, and Fort Worth, ever since. What makes her smile is the heady aroma of that first cup of morning coffee, the opportunity to be creative, consuming mid-afternoon hunks of dark chocolate, seeing her sons smile, and feeling the down-to-the-bone joy that is motherhood. Outside of what seems like daily trips to Central Market or Trader Joe's, she is likely to also be found sitting crisscross on a colorful rug at a story time, strolling the Fort Worth Zoo or at home gardening the pots on her front porch, also known as her living room. Colleen is the sponsorship director for the FWMB. She helps local and national businesses connect with the FWMB readership and benefits local mamas by providing new information on products and services important to them. Contact Colleen at [email protected].

3 COMMENTS

  1. Hello Colleen,

    Thank you so much for this fantastic blog post. We’re tickled pink to see a Mommy blogger sharing what we do with so many expecting mothers. Our GenCure organization houses the Texas Cord Blood Bank which brings together Be The Match and a network of 15+ hospitals around the state to provide free cord blood donation options. GenCure is also a one stop shop for testing, processing, storage and distribution of these precious stem cells to patients all over the world.

    We’re pretty proud of our amazing staff and what they are able to do with the help of our mommy donors. We invite you and your readers to check out our website or even drop by for a tour of our facility. We guarantee you will leave inspired by the incredible potential stem cells hold for patients waiting for a cure.

    Again, TYSM for sharing and if we can answer any questions or lend a hand, please let us know.

    Happy Mommying! ๐Ÿ˜€

  2. Colleen,

    Excellent article and so important. Expectant parents need to know how important it is to save cord blood. We work closely with BeTheMatch to help spread awareness about cord blood. One of our pride and joys is the Arizona Public Cord Blood program.

    Throughout the world, we are sad to say, not every hospital has a donation program. This is often due to lack of awareness and funding. This causes frustration and confusion for many parents. In these cases, Hybrid Banks can help fill the gaps. We have a list on our website.

    Of course, some parents may choose to privately store their child’s cord blood especially if they already anticipate using it for their own child or a member of the family. There is no bad choice as long as we don’t throw it away.

    At Save the Cord Foundation (a 501c3 non-profit), we work hard to educate parents and health professionals on their options and the latest developments in research using cord blood. Indeed, cord blood is already proving critical in the emerging field of regenerative medicine as a non-controversial source of stem cells. We have had several speakers on this very subject (see our #ShareTheScience webinar series which is free and open to all).

    Thank you for dedicating an article to this subject and highlighting the importance of #BeTheMatch. One conversation can save a life. Thank you for spreading the word.

    #GiveLifeTwice #SaveTheCord

  3. What a terrific awareness piece you’ve created here, Colleen! Thank you for taking time to share your thoughts, research, and passion for this important topic. Together, we’re helping to build awareness that will in turn save more lives.

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