Donating Cord Blood

[C~Q]

When I got the Bounty Bag there were lots of pamphlets about storing the cord blood of your baby. I would love to do that but unfortunatly we can't afford it. I have seen however that you can donate it with the possibility of it still being there if it was ever needed. Does anyone know anything about this?

Any info would be great, thanks

[JoMarie]

We spoke to my Ob a bout this last week as we are interested in doing it as well. From that info, I think you can donate to the Red Cross (like donating blood) but there is no guarantee that it won't be used by someone else. So, if someone else needs it and they are a match, they get the blood. We are still considering doing this as so far, according to my OB, they have only been able to use the blood with things like leaukemia (sp?), apparently there is a very small chance your child will have this at any stage of their lives, but they are working on helping things like diabetes.

Hope this helps (and is accurate!)

[BellyBelly]

If you want to donate the cord blood I believe the cord needs to be cut immediately to get that blood. So you need to weigh up the benefits - leaving the cord to stop pulsating before clamping / cutting gives the baby around 6-12 months iron stores and less chance of anaemia. So might be worth checking out first.

[Schmickers]

Also worth considering is that, at this stage, cord blood cannot be used to treat the child who donated it. There is, however, the possiblity that if one of that child's siblings contracted a condition that was treatable with cord blood (most notably, leukaemia) that the sibling and the child whose cord blood were stored are a close enough genetic match for that cord blood to be used as part of what is known as a Stem Cell Transplant. SO keep in mind that with technology as it currently stands, the stored blood would only be of possible use to a sibling, not the child itself.

[C~Q]

So the best thing to do would be to contact the Red Cross? Even if (and fingers crossed) we never needed or used it, at least somebody elses child might be able to.

Thanks for all your advice