I still hadn't heard anything back re the form I filled in for cord blood donation, so I rang them.

They don't do it for twins coz they're scared of getting them mixed up! Even though mine are identical.

Anyway, I asked about it still, and the hospitals that do the public donation one in Melbourne are Box Hill, Royal Women's, Frances Perry House, and William Angliss. The donations are available to anyone in the world. You do need an extra blood test but it costs nothing. And they don't need to clamp/cut the cord early or anything, you can still let it stop pulsating first, etc. They take it from the placenta end, and usually before the placenta comes out as the time can vary a lot.

The other mobs who put their brochures in the bounty bag are for private donation where you're storing it for yourself only, and they're the ones that cost all the money.

www.bmdi.org.au is the website for bone marrow donations charity site, and when you click on 'our work' you can find the cord blood bank bit. There's FAQs on there.

So it sounds great to me, no cost, no harm, the pope even approves it. They just seem to have limited resources atm re collecting. I'd do it if they'd take me, lol.