Can I donate cord blood?
Donating cord blood means that the very first thing you get to do with your baby is potentially save the life of another person. We work with cord blood banks in 19 states across the country. Check out our donation eligibility guidelines below to see if your delivery hospital partners with a cord blood bank.
If you’re unable to donate cord blood, know that your eligibility isn’t a reflection of the health of your baby or yourself. Because of the longevity of cryopreserving (freezing) cord blood units and the compromised immune systems of our patients, we want to ensure that there’s the highest chance for a successful blood stem cell transplant.
Cord blood donation eligibility
Because donor and patient safety is our top priority, there are some eligibility restrictions for donors. While this isn’t a comprehensive list, these are some of the most common factors:
- You’re 18 or older.
- You’re not related to the baby’s father by blood (i.e., first cousins).
- In the last 12 months, you haven’t had any tattoos or ear, skin or body piercings where shared or nonsterile inks, needles, instruments or procedures were used.
- You’ve never been told that you have aplastic anemia, hereditary spherocytosis, hereditary elliptocytosis, hypogammaglobulinemia or polycythemia.
- In the last 12 months, you haven’t required red blood cells or transfusion support.
- You’ve never been exposed to or infected with hepatitis B or C, HIV or the AIDS virus, West Nile virus or tuberculosis.
- You haven’t used a needle, even once, to take a drug not prescribed by a physician (including steroids) or in the last 12 months had sex with someone who has.
- In the last 12 months, you haven’t been treated or tested positive for syphilis.
- Neither you nor your baby's father nor any of your baby's siblings has ever had any type of cancer or leukemia (including skin cancers).
- During your pregnancy, you haven’t been in contact with anyone who received the smallpox vaccine.
- You’ve never been treated with chemotherapy.
- You’ve never taken interferon, infliximab, etanercept, methotrexate, 6-mercaptopurine, azathioprine, mycophenolate mofetil, cyclosporine or tacrolimus.
- You’re expecting only one baby.
- Your baby doesn't have any known fetal abnormalities.
You can still help patients
Each of us holds a key to unlocking life-saving hope for patients with blood cancers or disorders, and each of our keys looks a little different. The above restrictions may mean that you won’t be able to donate cord blood after your child’s birth, or there may not be a participating hospital nearby. Yet there are still plenty of paths to caring for those in need of cell therapy. Your support can help open more doors. Together, we can find cures and save lives.