To want to donate my cord blood?

[LollyLollington]

I delivered baby#1 at a hospital where the NHS collects cord blood donations. I was pleased to do it as had a very close relative who had leukaemia some years ago. Plus I had enormous monster baby and hospital said I produced a freakishly large amount of blood ) I'm mixed race so aware there may be high benefit in me donating. Baby#2 due soon but I've moved and it looks like baby#1 hospital was one of only 5 in the UK that does donations. Baby#2 hospital isn't listed as doing NHS donations. The only alternative is to pay £££ for a private company to store your cord blood for your own family. According to my googling donating cord blood is an amazing way to save lives. But NHS must have done some analysis that it's not worth that much - otherwise surely they'd be doing on a larger scale? Is anyone more informed on this - I'm feeling quite put out at not being able to donate again - but I may be being U?

Anthony Nolan charity works with hospitals to collect cord blood. Here’s some info www.anthonynolan.org/8-ways-you-could-save-life/donate-your-umbilical-cord-blood

Cord blood is used for transplants but usually for children as the amount is quite small. It’s very useful as cord stem cells are quite different to adult stem cells but cord blood is expensive comparatively to collect (which is why the NHS have limited centres I believe) so that combined with the amount means that transplant centres will request an adult match if it’s available for an adult patient. However the ethnic mix plays a huge part and it’s definitely worth donating as it really could save a life.

Cord blood is only really useful for paediatric bone marrow transplants as the volume gathered isn't enough to achieve complete depopulation in adults. Some smaller hospitals just won't physically have the capability to store/collect etc does samples or maybe haven't had the time to implement new procedures to enable them to collect them. It's nice you donated the first time of course but I suspect not every hospital has the facilities to do the collections, might be worth enquiring though as they might be able to set something up e.g. collect it but send it off elsewhere for processing, always worth a shot.

Repopulation not depopulation

Depends on whether you want delayed cord clamping, which is more beneficial for your baby. If the cord is left to stop pulsing, there’s generally not a lot left to actually collect. It can be a real struggle to get even a small syringe for necessary tests.

My son was adult size (15) 6” size 12 shoe.
He had a cord blood transplant as there was no bone marrow match for him.

For all those that donate, give blood.... I cannot thank you enough!

Sadly my son still died but his life was saved many times along the way which gave us extra time together.

Someone suggested I do this (I'm also mixed race, didn't know it affected anything, doubt she did either) but I'm not with a hospital that does it, though my nearest hospital does.

I think the midwife said that if you let the placenta come naturally (I have serious issues with needles so I'm looking at doing this) the baby would get more blood so I doubt there would be much to collect anyway unfortunately.

I donated my cord blood to Anthony Nolan. I never even knew it was a thing properly but I was fortunate enough to give birth in one of the few hospitals that do it. The cord blood lady said my placenta was huge and they collected loads which was something I never thought of of be proud of

I'm so, so sorry for your loss The oxymoron

I was disappointed that this wasn't an option at my local hospital when I had my son. My mum died from leukaemia when I was pregnant with him and I would have loved to be able to help someone else avoid that pain.

I would have loved to do it. Shame there are so few hospitals.

Olderthanyouthink, it's much harder for mixed race people to be matched for stem cell transplants etc so the more mixed race donors in the bank the better