Anybody has done cord blood banking?

[Angeldelight21]

Hi , I came across a few articles about cord blood banking and its benefits. Just wondering if anyone has done it?

Yes; DC1 was born at King’s in London so we were able to donate her cord blood to Anthony Nolan. It made no difference to our birth and hopefully it helped someone somewhere.

I think perhaps you mean where you bank it for your own child to use at a later date if they ever have some sort of condition or illness that requires it. I did the same as the poster above but a friend in the US did the cord banking for their child as it is much more common there, particularly among wealthier families. But they have a very different system of quite individualised health care. They also had a family history of various conditions and were mixed race so more difficult to find matches. But if there are no indications that you are likely to need this, I think I’d just take my chance with nhs matching services for blood and bone marrow etc. Also depends on your financial position I suppose.

Yes, I was thinking of banking it for my own child. My sister had done it but she lives abroad, I don't know anyone who has done it in the UK though. There is no family history I know of but my colleague's little boy has leukemia and that made me to think.

Sorry to hear about your colleague’s son. I hope he is on the mend.

Bluntly, if your child will be white then they will have a good chance of a match from the public cord blood bank if they need a stem cell transfusion. The chance of a good match is lower if they will be of BAME or mixed heritage so this may be a factor to consider. I would also suggest reading the varied opinions on the importance of delayed cord clamping.

I donated my sons cord blood 5 years ago in September
I had a placenta abruption and had to have a emergency c section and I still managed to donate to Anthony Nolan
Back then there was only a few hospital that actually collected it
So it was lucky the Leicester royal infirmary was one of them

There are even fewer places to donate now than there were five years ago.

The NHS bank only collects from three hospitals now: Luton & Dunstable, St George’s and UCL. Anthony Nolan have donation sites at:

Saint Mary's Hospital, Manchester
SMW Saint Mary's, Wythenshawe
King's College Hospital, London
Leicester Royal Infirmary
Leicester General Hospital

Check your trust's policy on private cord blood collection first. Mine has an absolute ban on private collection. It does support donation, but you'll be transferred to one of the trusts with donation capacity instead.