Umbilical Cord Blood Donation (Stem cells)

[HidCat]

Hi everyone, I hope this is ok to post but I'm currently in the throes if TTC and stumbled upon Umbilical cord donation. This is fairly new I think as I'd never heard of it before but wanted to get it out there as I think it's really important. It is only operated in a few hospitals at the moment but it can save hundreds of lives. Please consider this if you are about to have a baby in one of the hospitals that offers the service.

Good luck with your pregnancies ladies!

www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/cord-blood-bank/

I work for a blood cancer charity and agree if this is something available to you please do consider donating. I'm 15 weeks now with my 2nd and would love to donate but unfortunately there's no hospital near which offers the service :(

Yes, we did it at DD's birth. She was born at King's, which is one of the few hospitals where Anthony Nolan run a blood bank. We were told that they got a really good sample as we weren't able to have delayed clamping, and I hope that it was enough for a therapeutic use. Even tiny amounts are valuable for research and you can absolutely still donate after delayed cord clamping.

We have also since moved away and can't donate this time.

I was gutted this wasn't available in the hospital I gave birth in, especially as my mum died of leukemia last summer.

Just for info, the only hospitals where you can make altruistic donations in England are:

NHS cord blood banks - the Royal Free, Northwick Park, Luton & Dunstable University Hospital, Watford General, St George's Tooting, and UCLH.

Anthony Nolan - King's London, St Mary's Manchester, Leicester Royal Infirmary and Leicester General.

Other MNers might know whether there is anywhere in Scotland you can make an altruistic donation.