Parents have the option of storing their newborn's cord blood at a private cord blood bank or donating it to a public bank. Here's information on both options.

What Is Cord Blood Banking?

Umbilical cord blood is human blood that can be obtained from the placenta and umbilical cord shortly after birth. Cord blood banking is a procedure in which this blood is collected, processed, frozen, and stored for future medical use.

Cord Blood and Stem Cells

Cord blood is of medical importance because it contains blood-forming (hematopoietic) stem cells. These primitive, undeveloped cells have the remarkable ability to continuously divide and develop into many different cell types, and in doing so, can potentially act as a repair system for the body.

Private and Public Cord Blood Banks

Currently, more than 200,000 units of cord blood are stored by public (government sponsored) and private (for profit) cord blood banks. Parents have the option of storing their newborn's cord blood at a private cord blood bank or donating it to a public cord blood bank.

Private Cord Blood Banks

There are numerous for-profit organizations that will, for a fee, store cord blood for the exclusive use of the family of the donor. A family choosing to bank its baby’s cord blood for exclusive use of the family must make arrangements in advance with a private bank and with their obstetrician.

Usually the family signs a contract with the cord bank they have chosen and pays an initial fee. They then receive the company’s cord blood collection kit and must obtain their obstetrician’s agreement to do the collection.

The American Academy of Pediatrics’s (AAP) encourages parents to donate to public cord blood banks and discourages parents from using private cord blood banks for family cord blood storage unless they have an older child with a condition that could benefit from transplantation. such as a family history of specific genetic diseases. The cost is approximately $2000 for collection and approximately $125 per year for storage, as of 2007.

Public Cord Blood Banks

Government sponsored banks store cord blood for use by the general public, and, in the United States, matching cord blood to patient is typically accomplished through the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP).

Cord Blood donation is offered at little or no cost through many public and private cord blood banks. Donated cord blood may be used for allogenic transplants (in which stem cells from a donor are used, rather than the patients own stem cells) or cord blood be used for research that may improve the transplantation process for future patients.

Donation of cord blood is not something that can be accomplished spur of the moment

Parents should talk with the doctor or midwife about the decision to donate umbilical cord blood at least two months before the baby is due.

Prior to donation, the mother must complete a thorough health history and to be screened, for infectious agents such as the hepatitis viruses and HIV. The screening process, which is free of charge, is completed in the hospital. If the mother is in good health and meets eligibility criteria, she will be asked to sign a consent-to-donate form.

Not all hospitals collect cord blood for public banking; therefore, so it is important for patients to find out whether their hospital collects donations of cord blood for public banking. The National Marrow Donor Program maintains a list of hospitals that collect cord blood units for public cord blood banks.

The public cord blood bank does not charge the donor. However, the OB/GYN may still charge a collection fee, although many OB/GYNs choose to donate their time.

More Information

For more genetics information see the science education website Science Prof Online or learn more about stem cells on the Stem Cell Information page of the National Institutes of Health or other Suite101 articles, including Umbilical Cord Blood Banking, Collection of Umbilical Cord Blood, and Umbilical Cord Blood Storage