If you are expecting a baby have you thought about donating the cord rather than throwing it away?

[RTKangaMummy]

This has popped up on my FB newsfeed and I wondered if any of the pregnant ladies on here had thought about donating their umbilical cord to ANTHONY NOLAN to help other children that can be helped with the bone marrow

There are more details on the photo or do a Google search for ANTHONY NOLAN if you think you can help them

I think it would be a lovely thing to do with something that is just thrown away otherwise, don't you?

I would have happily done this - baby due in the next 4 weeks - but it's only if you give birth in 4 particular hospitals unfortunately.

Lovely idea but only available at 4 hospitals (1 London, 2 Leicester and 1 Manchester). Unfortunately I'm not giving birth at any of them, otherwise I would.

Here's the information on it. www.anthonynolan.org/8-ways-you-could-save-life/donate-your-umbilical-cord-blood

Yes I am sorry about that I should have done more research before I posted

It is a shame that only some places have the facility set up

However I found this information of extra places you can donate

here are some extra places that cord blood can be donated

Yep I am going to do this. I wonder why so few hospitals offer this? Is it a new thing?

I signed up for this as I saw a leaflet about it whilst I was waiting for my scan st the hospital. Filled it in, stuck the sticker on my notes which my midwife saw at all appointments.

Then after having DS the midwife said 'oh we don't do that here'. (Nottingham City)

It's a shame as I really would like to have done it.

Here is the history of the charity Anthony Nolan was born in 1971 and died aged 8 years old

That is a shame that the midwives didn't tell you beforehand, I guess it is because it is a charity and so doesn't have enough money to spread out across the UK, but I guess the more mums to be that ask about it they might realise there is a desire in other areas to organise it

That is brilliant that you are going to be able to donate your cord

Afaik there's a bit more to it than just bagging the cord up and sending it off.

At the hospital I work at we don't provide the service. Some parents employ a private firm to do it so they bank the cord blood for their own child in case it's needed in the future. The bloke who comes to do it seems to spend about 30 mins in the sluice with the placenta. Not 100% sure what he actually does. But as a midwife on a stretched unit I wouldn't have the time to do it if that's typical rather than this bloke being very slow.

I am on the Anthony Nolan register myself, however when I looked into this, it transpires that upto 30% of a baby's blood can be in the cord when born. It's beneficial for your baby to delay cord clamping so that they get all of their blood. Please read up on it before deciding. It isn't a waste product.

sj257 we did take this into consideration as we wanted to join the register. We can't as we aren't near a hospital that offers it, but I would still be willing to go ahead on that basis - a normal baby can regain that 30% in a few days and the health benefit for them getting the extra blood from the cord, whilst true, isn't massive as they do regain that ground quickly. For a child needing the transplant it could be a matter of living or dying so we would still want to go ahead. For this same reason, we have put in our birth plan that if anything goes wrong we want to donate our baby's organs.

Yes my baby and I donated his cord last week

Yes we will be. Midwife spoke to us about it at our booking appt and we've had the sticker on our notes ever since. Apparently though it does depend if there's anyone available at the time to take it. Both me and my partner are on the Anthony Nolan register and the work the charity do are amazing x

I've filled in the form, but, as some people have already pointed out, they tend to delay cutting the cord now and often baby can absorb everything before hand. This certainly happened with my neice!

White caucasoid patients are very likely to have matches on the normal registries but bme and mixed patients can have a much tougher time getting a good match for transplant so cord banks are (very sensibly imho) focussing their efforts on getting a great service in places where many bme and mixed families deliver their babies. A person who is good at collecting and rapid processing and freezing is critical for a high quality usable end product so it makes sense to focus efforts for that reason too.

We kept DS2's cord blood when he was born. It took minutes. It was a private company though. DH had to telephone when I went into labour and a nurse came out and did it.

Me and a few friends have all donated the cords and we were not at any of these hospitals.......check yours to find out and it needs to be in your notes pre birth for them to remember to do it!

If I'd known about this, and my local maternity ward could facilitate it, I'd have been happy to donate.

I donated with my first and had intended to with DC2 but we were redirected to a different hospital for the birth as the planned one was full , and they weren't a centre that did it.

Isn't the private banking super expensive?

convincing Private banking wasn't "cheap" but neither did I regard it as particularly expensive - it was about £1300 for 25 years - £4.50 a month is nothing to us.

We didn't know about it when DS1 was born but have subsequently had his stem cells extracted when he had teeth removed under GA.

So both now have stem cells if they ever should need them (I accept the likelihood is low).

Actually DH has just told me it was £1500 but even so - £5 a month.

I donated DDs (they took the placenta away while I was having a major PPH, then the midwife had to go track it down as they hadn't had the chance to check it was complete), and wanted to donate my DTs but in the 21 months between births they had stopped it at my maternity hospital (a major one so I was surprised they had stopped it there, but never mind).

I wanted to do this with dc3 and filled out all the forms and had the sticker on my notes. I gave birth quickly and the cord was just thrown away the midwife mentioned something about it not being suitable but I wonder if she was rushed and didn't bother, I wasn't in a position to push it further but I do wonder what happens.

That's cheaper than I think I've seen advertised.

That's very possible convincing DS2 is now 10 and so I expect prices have changed a bit.