Donating cord blood?

[LBW]

Hi,

Has anyone here donated your baby's cord blood. I'm considering this after the child birth refresher class nurse talked to us about it last night. I'm not interested in private storage, just donation. What concerns me most is making sure it doesn't get sold for research. I've contacted a local nonprofit organization that collects donated CB, so I can ask them a bunch of questions. Anything specific I should ask other than the selling for research question?

Thanks,
Tara

[phirey]

We donated both times through www.babiesforlife.org

Don't have a lot of help to offer since I think research is equally if not more important, so I donated my placentas as well, specifically for diabetes research. If they've got dozens and dozens of samples of my exact same type lined up and my cord blood could have gone toward finding even more uses for it, I was OK with that.

Just my $.02.

[buddyleebaby]

I tried, unsuccessfully to donate my dd's cord blood. At the time she was born, my state's blood bank was not yet collecting at the hospital where I gave birth (although they were supposed to be, they were four months behind schedule).
Now they ARE accepting donations but my Doctor will charge 400 dollars to collect it, which my dh and I can simply not afford. So it looks like once again it will be wasted. Such a shame.
No insight, I just wanted to commend you on your decision.

[phirey]

That's ridiculous! $400? It takes NOTHING to collect it. That's just an unscrupulous doctor finding any way he can to make money! When all you're doing is DONATING?!? I'd question his motives to his face, and then ask the hospital which other OBs collect without charging the fee, and consider switching. I think it just speaks to the Dr.'s values when they pull something like that!

[buddyleebaby]

I know! It takes about ten seconds, right?
And the worst part is I go to a group practice, so all six Doctors had to sit down and agree to charge 400 bucks.

[LBW]

I agree that medical research is important. I guess my problem is with for-profit collection companies SELLING donated cord blood for research. That's really what I don't want.

[HannaAddict]

We donated it through our local non-profit blood bank and there was actually a consent form for donation for transplant or research. You could decline research use if you wanted. I have no problem with it being used for research if it isn't viable for transplant. The blood center actually had a donation team at the hospital the day I delivered (c-section) and they were in the OR off to the side (with my permission and doctors) and they took the whole placenta/cord to their office a block away to harvest the cord blood. I guess it is a new way they are collecting to make it as easy on the doctors as possible and so encourage donation. My doctor had not had them collect it that way before but she and the nurses thought it worked great.

We found out the next day that it had "passed" the first test or two tests for viability for donation (amount of blood and number of cells I think) but I've never called to see if it was able to be viable for donation versus research. The blood bank was incredibly appreciative and nice about everything. I can't imagine being charged to donated blood, what a terrible public policy.

Kimberly

[theloo]

Where can I find out how to donate? I am in California and apparently there are only two (!) hospitals that participate in the National Bone Marrow donor program's cord banking.

[hi_lily]

You don't have to be in a hospital which participates in the program. You can contact the agency in your state and they will send you a kit. Simply take the kit with you when you are in labor, and they will send someone to pick it up. Make sure your OB/hospital doesn't charge a fee for collection.

I had trouble looking for community bank too. I called up one place which said they don't take from my hospital. Then I beg them to refer me to another organization then they gave me a phone number.

Here's the link
http://communitybloodservices.org/cord_blood_7_Links.htm

Especially http://www.parentsguidecordblood.com/
have list of public banks.

[theloo]

The parent's guide link was very helpful. I guess it is NOT common for your doctor to charge something for the collection process even for donation since it is extra work for the doctor/hospital. I'm going to ask my doctor about it at my appointment this week. Looks like we will probably need to go with Cryobank or Lifebank since there aren't any local banks.

[theloo]

Hmmm. I requested info from both Cryobank and Lifebank over two weeks ago and haven't heard a peep from them (either by mail or by phone).

[theloo]

Just minutes after posting this, I received an email from LifeBank saying that they have exceeded their need for donations and the donation program is closed for now :( They may re-open by the time I'm due, but now I'm hoping that Cryobank isn't closed to new donations too!

[downwarddog]

I donated my DD's cord blood back in 2003 with Cryobanks.

It's now March 2007 and I just spoke with the people at Cryobank (www.cryo-intl.com). You can download all the forms online, fill them out, have your doc sign them, and return them to Cryobank by your 35th week. My doc doesn't charge -- I can't imagine! I had a few questions for them, which they answered immediately either via email or telephone. They do both private and public banking, so anyone basically needing a bone marrow transport has access to their public bank.

FYI: There are no local NH hospitals participating in any banks, the Red Cross neither (I tried them first).

HTH! I wish more people knew about cord blood donations!
~Lenore

[emily_gracesmama]

Thanks for posting this, I wanted to donate so now I can donate too! I just hope they can get enough this time to make a difference for someone, I tried to privately bank with my daughter and for some reason, the collection wasn't enough to bank it at that time.

[downwarddog]

Just wanted to update my last post...

Cryobanks recently decided not to accept the donated cord blood of children whose parents have Type 1 Diabetes. I believe they actually said parents with any autoimmune disease, but it's been over a month now & I can't remember EXACTLY what they said.

But I hope that info helps someone out there, anyway.

Good luck!
~Lenore

[JamRowZ]

That's the policy of the National Marrow Donation Program not Cryobanks in particular. The immune cells generated from the cord blood could cause the same disease in a recipient and they can't know yet whether the kid has the disease when you donate.

My impression is they will still take the blood for disease research though. Usually when they use the cord blood for research it's because it is not usable for transplant for some reason. It's reasonable if they sell it because they need to recover the banking costs and as the donor you aren't paying it.

>Just wanted to update my last post...
>
>Cryobanks recently decided not to accept the donated cord
>blood of children whose parents have Type 1 Diabetes. I
>believe they actually said parents with any autoimmune
>disease, but it's been over a month now & I can't remember
>EXACTLY what they said.
>
>But I hope that info helps someone out there, anyway.
>
>Good luck!
>~Lenore