Umbilical Cord Blood Storage Procedures

At the moment of birth, when a newborn's umbilical cord is cut, the cord and the blood inside of it is generally thrown away. This blood contains stem cells, which can later differentiate into various other cells in the body and have been used to fight some diseases, especially blood cancers like leukemia. To capitalize on this, cord blood banks collect and store umbilical cord blood for either public donation or retrieval by the newborn's family for later transplant. The Cord Blood Registry is the nation's largest family cord blood bank.

Reasons for Banking Cord Blood

• Cord blood can be used to transplant to the newborn later in life, parents or siblings. Since the sample comes from a blood relative, the chance of rejection is less than from donation from a stranger. While cord blood stem cells are being used today to combat a variety of diseases, their true function and application is still being researched. Therefore, some families choose to bank cord blood as an "insurance policy" in case uncovers more uses one day. Birth is the only time at which cord blood stem cells can be harvested.

Cost

• Cord blood that is collected by a private family cord blood bank is reserved for the family's use only and will not be distributed to anyone else without permission. Setup and processing fees are generally a few thousand dollars, with a yearly maintenance fee of a few hundred dollars or less. There is no cost to donate cord blood to a public cord blood bank, which disperses stem cells to anyone who needs it and is a match, much like a public whole blood bank. However, few hospitals collect cord blood samples for donation to a public bank, and donors may be rejected due to family history and other health issues. Public cord banks typically charge the recipient tens of thousands of dollars for the transplant if a suitable match is found.

Collection

• When an expectant mother registers to have her baby's cord blood collected by a family cord blood bank, she is sent a collection kit that must be brought to the hospital at delivery. (Sterile kits are available for use in cesarean section.) Collection is performed by the caregiver who delivers the baby. After the umbilical cord is clamped and cut, as in normal delivery, the blood is collected by syringe or blood bag. There is no pain or discomfort to mother or baby, and there is no change to the normal delivery procedure, except the umbilical cord is not discarded after it's cut until the blood is collected. In the case of a c-section, the doctor can deliver the placenta to a sterile tray and collect the blood from the fetal side of the placenta, producing similar results and amount of blood as from a vaginal delivery.

Shipping

• It is vital that the cord blood storage facility receive the sample within 24 to 36 hours of collection. Private cord blood banks have shipping and courier protocols in place in which the mother or a member of the health care team calls a phone number after collection, and the sample is picked up right from the hospital room. Blood samples should be stored at room temperature until pickup, never refrigerated, frozen or exposed to extreme heat such as the trunk of a car.

Storage

• Blood samples are individually coded and labeled and stored in liquid nitrogen. Samples stored in this manner have been successfully used 15 years later with no adverse effects on viability, and research suggests that cord blood may be stored this way indefinitely with no ill effects.