Understanding Cord Blood Donation

By: Maeve Rich

Parents these days are bombarded with advertisements for cord blood donation. When expecting a child, parents want to make the best decisions for their children. Is donating cord blood one of them?

When you donate cord blood, umbilical cord blood from birth is collected and stored. This doesn't hurt either the mother or baby. Doctors use the stem cells from umbilical cord blood to treat hematologic, immunologic and oncologic disorders. While these cells may also be found in bone marrow and circulating blood, cord blood is easier to match to transplant patients than the other two sources. Cord blood may be used by the person who donated the blood (called autologous use) or by somebody else who closely matches the donated cord blood (allogeneic).

Blood stored privately cannot always be used by the person who donated it, as the disease that needs to be treated often infects the cord blood as well. Besides the donor, the cord blood may be used by a sibling, although there is just a 25% chance that the cord blood of one sibling will be a good match for another. Because of this, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advises against parents privately banking cord blood unless "there is knowledge of a full sibling in the family with a medical condition (malignant or genetic) that could potentially benefit from cord blood transplantation." The AAP does support public banking, as it is free to families and it is available to a large group of people. 

Should you decide to bank your child's cord blood privately, keep in mind that doing so may be expensive. The initial cost to bank cord blood privately is around $1,000, followed by yearly fees of roughly $100. Look for a cord blood registry which is accredited; AABB is the primary accrediting agency for cord blood, although FACT is good too. You can find a table showing private companies as well as cord blood donation cost here. 

Cord blood can also be banked publicly, meaning that anybody who matches your child's cord blood can use it. Although this is free for parents to do, it doesn't mean that blood will be available for your child's use, or his siblings. It also can be difficult to find a hospital which accepts cord blood donations, as the cost to them is high.