Cord Blood Banking FAQs

Is There Any Risk to My Child or Myself During Collection?

No. The cord blood is collected after your baby has been born and the umbilical cord has been clamped and cut. The cord blood that is being collected is blood that would routinely be thrown away. The collection is painless, easy, and safe for mother and baby. Your caregiver will not alter their normal birthing process in any way, except to collect your baby's cord blood. The average time for cord blood collection is about 5 minutes.

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Is The Amount Collected Important?

Yes. Larger stem cell samples have shown better survival rate in transplant.

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How Is Cord Blood Collected?

Cord blood collection banks usually offer a choice of either the syringe or blood bag collection methods.

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When Is The Cord Blood Collected?

Cord blood is collected from the umbilical cord immediately after the birth of the baby and after the cord has been cut. This blood is routinely discarded and collecting it does not alter normal birthing procedures. The collection can only take place at the time of delivery and is normally performed by your caregiver.

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How Long Has The Process Of Cord Blood Collection Existed?

The first cord blood transplant was performed in 1988. Since then, more than 4,000 transplants have occurred.

The opportunity for expectant families to collect and store their newborn's umbilical cord blood stem cells has only been widely available since late 1995. Currently, thousands of parents are taking advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

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What If Someone In My Family Is Sick And Needs My Childs Cord Blood?

Some companies have special programs such as a Designated Transplant Program (DTP) providing cord blood collection, processing, and storage at no cost to families with a medical need. Qualifying families may apply for the DTP with a letter from their hematologist or oncologist recommending cord blood banking as a treatment option for the family.

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Should I Choose a Cord Blood Bank That's Local?

It is not important for a cord blood bank to be close to your home. The safety and viability of your baby's stem cells are far more important than the proximity of the storage location. The most important thing for your family is to make sure that your baby's cord blood collection yields the greatest number of stem cells possible and that the cells are viable and available if they are ever needed for transplant. It is also important for the bank's laboratory and storage facility to be in a location that is not subject to major environmental disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and tornadoes.

Cord Blood Registry's collection and processing techniques have been published in leading medical journals and have been proven in over 40 transplants to date. Should they be needed, your stem cells can quickly be shipped to any medical center in the world.

Finally, since most families will require long-term storage, you will want to choose a cord blood bank that is financially stable and will be around in the future to ensure your baby's stem cells will be available if needed.

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Public Cord Blood Banking

Unfortunately, cord blood collection for public donation can only be accommodated at specified hospitals in limited regional locations. This is primarily due to funding constraints of many public banks. In addition, a lot of families are ineligible for donation for a variety of reasons including family health history, maternal exposure to viruses, and international travel. Hopefully in the future we will see funding sources step forward and help out with significant funding required.

Should All Of My Children's Cord Blood Be Saved?

Just as each child is genetically unique, so is that child’s cord blood stem cell sample. Parents save cord blood for each of their children to ensure that an exact genetic match is available. In addition, it increases the likelihood of a useful match between family members. The stem cells in a sibling's cord blood are up to twice as likely to be useful for transplant compared to stem cells from the same sibling's bone marrow. In the case of identical twins, it is still important to save as many stem cells as possible, and it is recommended that cord blood be collected for both babies. In general, the collection volume per baby in multiple births is smaller, so collecting for both babies helps ensure an adequate stem cell yield for transplantation if ever needed. Generally, each child's cord blood is banked separately even in the case of identical twins.

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Why Do Families Choose to Collect and Store Their Baby's Cord Blood?

A Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity - Only at Birth

At an increasing rate, expectant parents are storing cord blood for their families, not only as a potential life-saving resource for current uses of stem cells, but also for their future potential. Some families have more defined risk factors, but most often, parents bank for the security in knowing the health benefits stem cells may someday offer their children, themselves, or other family members.

Recent clinical studies support the unique suitability of cord blood stem cells for a number of developing technologies. Doctors are especially enthusiastic about the potential use of cord blood stem cells in the emerging fields of gene therapy and cellular repair. When you bank your baby's cord blood stem cells, you are saving what may be a key component to potential future medical treatments and cures.

Additional considerations and unique birthing circumstances include:

Family History

Cord blood banking is a prudent choice if you or your spouse/partner have any family history of a disease that is treatable with stem cells, such as leukemia, lymphoma, or myeloma. It is important to remember, however, that for many cancers and diseases, the causes are unknown and they occur even when there is no family history of the disease.

Ethnic or Mixed Ethnicity

Ethnic minorities and families of mixed ethnicity have greater difficulty finding stem cell donors when needed. Many genetic diseases such as sickle cell anemia and thalassemia are more common in certain ethnic populations. Both of these diseases have been successfully treated with stem cells from cord blood.

Newborn Adoption

Families preparing to adopt a newborn choose cord blood banking because, if ever needed, the cord blood may be the only available genetic source of stem cells for the adopted baby. In addition, depending upon the terms of the adoption, complete family medical histories are not always available.

In Vitro Pregnancies

Couples using fertility treatments bank cord blood because they face the possibility of not having another opportunity to secure a genetically related sample of cord blood stem cells for their child.

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Who Stores Their Baby's Cord Blood Stem Cells ?

Tens of thousands of families have chosen to save their baby's cord blood stem cells. Most clients have no family history of disease, but see the current and future potential of their newborn's cord blood stem cells as a biological resource.

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Cord Blood Banking Options

There are two types of banks; family banks (for one's own family's use) and public donor banks (unrelated or non-family use i.e. "public"). Every parent has the option of saving cord blood for their baby and family, while only a small number of people may be able to donate their baby's cord blood stem cells.

Cord Blood Registry is the world's most experienced and trusted cord blood stem cell bank. We have established the gold standard in cord blood banking and have stored thousands of client samples.

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What's HLA Matching?

Matching refers to six proteins called Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA) that appear on the surface of white blood cells and other tissues in the body. These six HLA points, or loci, determine tissue compatibility between a patient and a donor. Although a perfect match would be best, studies have shown that cord blood transplants are successful, even when only three of the six loci match. With cord blood, the immune cells are less mature than those in bone marrow, and therefore siblings are twice as likely to be able to use each other's cord blood, compared to bone marrow.

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Grafting vs. Host Disease (GVHD)

GVHD is one of the most common and life threatening side effects of a stem cell/bone marrow transplant. GVHD occurs when the transplanted stem cells recognize the recipient's body as foreign, and "reject" it. Cord blood transplants have had a noticeable lack of GVHD because the stem cells from the donor do not need to match the recipient as closely as with bone marrow.

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Cord Blood Transplant Proposal In The Future?

To date, umbilical cord blood has been used in more than 6,000 transplants for children and adults. In many cases, the cord blood was used by the baby's sibling. Other transplants have occurred for the newborn himself, the newborn's mother, father, and the newborn's cousin.

In the past two years alone, research has demonstrated that cord blood stem cells can differentiate into other types of cells in the body. The regenerative qualities of stem cells have been brought to the forefront in the field of cellular repair. Stem cells have been labeled an important biological resource and researchers are conducting more and more studies to unlock the potential of umbilical cord blood stem cells in future applications for diseases like Alzheimer's, diabetes, heart and liver disease, muscular dystrophy, Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injury, and stroke.

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Why Are Doctors Turning To Cord Blood Instead Of Bone Marrow?

Easier to match -- higher survival
Bone marrow is difficult to match between the donor and recipient because a perfect match is usually required. Cord blood immune cells, however, are less mature than in bone marrow and can be successfully used even when there is only a half-match. This means there is more opportunity for transplants between family members when cord blood is stored. Some studies have shown that overall survival rates for related transplants are more than double that of transplants from unrelated donors.

Immediate availability
Banking cord blood ensures that these stem cells can be immediately available if they are needed for treatment. Early treatment of many illnesses can minimize disease progression. According to researchers at Duke University, cord blood transplants could provide possible survival that is unlikely with the more time consuming process of unrelated marrow donation.

Less GVHD
Overall, patients who receive cord blood transplants from a relative experience significantly less Graft vs. Host Disease (GVHD), a transplant rejection that is the leading cause of death in stem cell transplant patients. According to one study, the three-year cumulative incidence of chronic GVHD was 6% for matched siblings who received cord blood transplants versus 15% for matched siblings who received bone marrow transplants.

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