Anybody ever donated their cord blood?

[marthathecakelady]

Or looked into it?

I just read this story about a little boy who is doing so so well after his life was saved because someone had donated their baby's cord blood to a bank. Something that normally would just be disposed of could save the life of a baby/child with a blood disease. It is done like a bone marrow transplant but doesn't have to be as specific of a match like bone marrow. Cause cord blood is like magic.


We don't live near a hospital that does it but I am going to talk to my dr and find out if she would be willing to participate in the "harvest" if I applied to the program. (there are some banks around the country that are willing to work with moms in other places.)

[Beaner's Mom]

I looked into banking it for future use (costs money), but you can't do that *and* do a delayed clamp/cut, so we're going with the latter. I don't know about donating it, though.

[RunawayBunny]

I looked into it with Joey's birth, but my hospital didn't participate. I am definitely going to look at it again with our new hospital. Sort of off-topic, but I am also going to look into breastmilk donation this time around, too. I am excited!

[andyoly82]

I wanted to with DS but because he was so early and thy were worried about his lungs the dr suggested delayed clamping so he received all the cord blood. I plan on donating this time if everything goes smoothly!

[challmeyeralways]

Originally Posted by Beaner's Mom I looked into banking it for future use (costs money), but you can't do that *and* do a delayed clamp/cut, so we're going with the latter. I don't know about donating it, though.

What is a delayed clamp/cut?

[challmeyeralways]

I looked at donating when the youngest was born, but it was a HUGE cost... not sure if that was just with that organization or not, but it did not seem to make sense.

When I was nursing our first one, we were BROKE and doing all that we could to make extra money. I looked into selling my milk (I seem to have a surplus) but at the time, there were so many things that you had to prove about your diet and the collection of the milk and the storage of it, that it was not cost effective. Also, the bank that sold it, was several hours away and would have had more hoops to jump through trying to get it to them while it was still stored correctly. If you have found more info, I would love it... I have had several friends not able to make enough milk in the last few years, that we might be interested in donating.

[ssqueakert]

I very briefly looked into cord blood banking, but it was way too expensive for us. I hadn't really seen any options about donating it, so I guess I never really looked into that! Sounds like a nice option.

We delayed cutting the cord so it ended up being not really being an option.

Originally Posted by challmeyeralways What is a delayed clamp/cut?

It is when you don't cut the umbilical cord immediately and leave it to pulsate for several minutes or longer.

There are several benefits to delaying, including:

~increased levels of iron "A two-minute delay in cord clamping increased the child’s iron reserve by 27-47 mg of iron, which is equivalent to 1-2 months of an infant’s iron requirements. This could help to prevent iron deficiency from developing before 6 months of age."
~lower risk of anaemia
~fewer transfusions, and
~fewer incidences of intraventricular haemorrhage.

~Studies have shown the baby ends up with more blood volume than those who have immediate cord clamping. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7612098


From this site:
http://bellybelly.com.au/birth/cord-...-cord-clamping
"A two-minute delay in cord clamping increased the child’s iron reserve by 27-47 mg of iron, which is equivalent to 1-2 months of an infant’s iron requirements. This could help to prevent iron deficiency from developing before 6 months of age.
...
While delayed clamping is beneficial for babies across the board, the studies found that the impact of delayed clamping is particularly significant for infants who have low birth weights, are born to iron-deficient mothers, are premature, or those who do not receive baby formula or iron-fortified milk. Given that mother nature provided breastmilk for babies and not formulas, you would think she also supplied that valuable source of iron for a reason too. You may have noticed that formula companies promote iron deficiency rates to sell their products.

The studies have suggested that delayed clamping, for as little as two minutes, should be implemented as standard practice, however this is yet to happen at many hospitals. Some couples choose to leave the cord unclamped until it has stopped pulsating, which could take a few minutes or it could take around twenty – either way, the baby is able to have his or her supply of placental blood."


"Delayed cord clamping is not usually compatible with cord blood donation. The reason being is that in order for them to collect that blood, some collectors will say that they need the cord cut so the blood can be used for storage or donation."

[Momof6girlz]

We donated the cord blood with my last baby We could not afford to bank it for ourselves. It was super easy, my Dr had me fill out paper work at an earlier appt. We will do it again this time

[Whipple]

I have looked into it, but I am also delaying clamping, so I can't do it. By the time I cut, there will be no blood left.

[challmeyeralways]

Wow! So much great information! thank you for the teaching. i will be looking into it a little more.