If you’re pregnant, you may have received a phone call or letter from a cord blood bank asking you to donate your cord blood when you have your baby. At first it may seem like an unusual request, and then almost like a miracle. Doctors and researchers have only recently discovered the possibilities of cord blood stem cells in healing patients who need blood transplants for a variety of diseases. If you know someone with leukemia or another form of cancer, then you may understand the anxiety involved in searching for the necessary blood or bone marrow transplants. The new blood cells must match just right, or else the patient’s body will reject them, sometimes resulting in deadly consequences.
Doctors have found that cord blood stem cells have several advantages over stem cells from bone marrow and circulating blood, the traditional ways of transplanting. The recipient patient’s body will more likely accept stem cells from cord blood because of the young age of these stem cells. In the past, patients who had undergone blood transplants had a much greater risk of suffering from graft-vs.-host disease, when the body rejects the new substance. Doctors can match a patient with the correct stem cells by comparing tissue traits, and although people have a wide variety of tissue traits, patients from all over the world can benefit from your cord blood donation.
If you look on the Internet, you can find complete lists of the hospitals that take cord blood. An organization called the National Marrow Donation Program has a public cord blood bank which registers stem cells and their individual traits, and distributes them to people around the world who match them. In addition to providing transplants for cancer patients, researchers also have begun to use stem cells from the cord blood bank to treat Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes. Doctors have already performed several thousand cord blood transplants, and are constantly finding new ways in which stem cells help cure diseases.
If you think you’d like to donate your baby’s cord blood at the time of birth, then here’s how it works. You should notify your hospital a few weeks in advance, and they can tell you if they have the necessary technology required to collect cord blood, and if they don’t, they’ll tell you the nearest place. Generally, most large universities and medical hospitals have the equipment to collect cord blood. Because doctors gather the cord blood immediately after birth (less than 15 minutes for safety), you won’t have to worry about any extra procedures or pain.
If someone in your family needs a blood transplant, then your baby’s cord blood will have a higher chance of matching their tissue. Since matching depends on tissue traits, people of the same heritage make the best matches, making cord blood more difficult to find for minorities. If you are a minority or mixed race, then your baby’s cord blood might match someone who couldn’t otherwise find a match. A cord blood bank can keep frozen cord blood for ten years or more, so chances are somebody will greatly appreciate and be greatly benefited by your donation.
By Lisa Zyga