What is cord blood donation?
Your baby’s umbilical cord and placenta contain blood rich in blood stem cells, nonembryonic cells that have the power to help treat blood cancers and disorders. Typically, though, the umbilical cord and placenta are disposed of after birth. When you donate your baby’s cord blood for storage and later use, you play a vital role in curing or treating patients.
Why donate cord blood?
The very first thing your baby could do is save a life.
Every year, 12,000 patients are diagnosed with life-threatening blood cancers or disorders like sickle cell for which a blood stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor may be their best or only hope for a cure. Cord blood donation is one way to supply those much-needed cells.
What is cord blood used for?
According to studies, one of the benefits of cord blood is that patients may not need to genetically match an umbilical cord blood unit as closely as they do an adult bone marrow or PBSC donor. Umbilical cord blood is especially promising for patients who:
- Have diverse ethnic backgrounds, helping remove barriers for patients with uncommon human leukocyte antigen (HLA) types, which are used to match donor cells to patients
- Need a transplant urgently: A patient doesn’t need to wait for an adult donor to go through the process of donating marrow or PBSC
- Have a life-threatening genetic disorder that usually presents itself in childhood
- Have trouble finding an adult donor on the NMDP RegistrySM
Help improve the odds
Patients are most likely to match donors who share their ethnic background because the genetic markers used to determine a match are inherited. Ethnically diverse donors are underrepresented on the registry, though, which means not everyone has the same chance of finding a match. By adding your baby’s unique cord blood to the registry, you can help increase all patients’ odds of finding a matching donor, regardless of ethnic background.
Things to keep in mind when donating cord blood
- In order to donate your umbilical cord blood to the NMDP public registry, you must be delivering your baby at a participating cord blood collection facility.
- Since the blood is coming from the umbilical cord and not the baby, there’s no additional recovery time for you or your baby aside from the typical recovery from childbirth.
- Cord blood donation promotes sustainable health care practices by drawing from the cord and placenta, which otherwise would be discarded after childbirth.
- There’s no guarantee your baby’s cord blood will be a match for a patient, but you and your child could help save a life.
How to donate cord blood
Interested in learning more about the process or have questions?
The impact of cord blood
See what other families experienced when making the decision to donate cord blood.
Meet Lucy
Lucy is a high-spirited 7-year-old who enjoys reading, ballet and riding her bike. At 6 months old, she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). A cord blood transplant was the life-saving treatment Lucy needed and now she can celebrate every milestone, both big and small thanks to the mother who donated cord blood.
Meet Sosa
Imagine not knowing if you would live to see your 18th birthday, that is the reality Sosa faced living with sickle cell disease. A cord blood donation made it possible for Sosa to receive a double cord blood transplant when she was 12, giving her a second chance at life. Having completed her undergraduate studies, Sosa is hoping to pursue a career in medicine thanks to the moms who donated their cord blood.
