Public cord blood banks and donation hospitals
Public cord blood banks work with participating cord blood donation hospitals as part of the NMDPSM Network of banks.
What’s the difference between a public cord blood bank and a cord blood donation hospital?
While cord blood donation hospitals and public cord blood banks are both heavily involved in the cord blood donation process, there is a difference between the two. Hospitals collect a cord blood unit (CBU) from the umbilical cord after birth and ship it to a cord blood bank. A cord blood bank processes, cryopreserves (freezes) and stores CBUs. If a CBU is a match for a patient, the cord blood bank ships the CBU to the transplant center for the patient.
While some hospitals function as both a cord blood donation hospital and a cord blood bank, donors are unable to donate at a cord blood bank.
What’s the difference between public cord blood donation and private cord blood donation?
Public cord blood banking
When you donate your baby’s umbilical cord for public use:
- It will be listed on NMDP RegistrySM, and it’s available to any patient in need of a transplant; it’s not reserved for your family members.
- There’s no cost to you because public cord blood banks cover the fees associated with processing, testing and storing donated cord blood.
- It’s collected under strict quality standards to make sure the CBU is usable for transplant. If standards aren’t met, the cord blood unit may be used for research to improve the transplant process for future patients or the unit will be discarded.
Private cord blood storage
If you store the cord blood in a family (private) cord blood bank:
- It’s reserved for your own family members.
- You’re charged a fee for the collection and an annual fee to store the umbilical cord blood.
- The cord blood can’t be listed on the registry at a later date.
Donating cord blood for public use or storing it for your family’s private use is a personal decision. Typically, the umbilical cord and placenta are discarded after your baby is born—unless you decide otherwise.
NMDP establishes relationships with public cord blood banks throughout the United States as well as international banks. The CBUs in these banks are listed on the NMDP RegistrySM and are included in every patient's search of the registry for an unrelated donor or cord blood unit.
To ensure the quality of each unit listed on the registry, every bank in our Network meets and maintains our strict criteria and standards.