What is so special about cord blood?
- Blood from the umbilical cord and the placenta contains blood-forming stem cells.
- These blood-forming stem cells can treat some diseases of the blood, immune system, and metabolism. In addition, this type of stem cells can help counteract the harmful effects that some cancer treatments have on the immune system.
- Another source of these stem cells is from bone marrow. However, obtaining marrow is painful to a donor and is not without risk.
What are your cord blood banking options?
- Private Cord Blood Banking
- There are several companies that store your baby’s cord blood.
- The private companies will charge a collection fee and then an annual storage fee
- Public Cord Blood Banking
- At the present time, the local public cord bank is not affiliated with WakeMed. We apologize for the inconvenience.
How is cord blood collected?
- All of our providers are trained to collect cord blood.
- Collection is performed by draining the blood from the umbilical cord with a needle at the time of delivery. After your baby has delivered, the umbilical cord is clamped and cut close to the newborn’s belly button. The cord blood is collected from the remaining umbilical cord segment prior to delivery of the placenta.
- Cord blood may be collected at the time of vaginal delivery or a c-section, but sometimes our ability to safely collect cord blood during a c-section is limited by the surgical situation and operative bleeding.
- It may not be possible to collect cord blood if the delivery is too premature, if there is presumed infection of the amniotic fluid or placenta, or if there are active herpes lesions or genital warts.
- No guarantees can be made about the quality or quantity of the collection. Our providers always strive to collect the best cord blood sample possible.
Things to consider when making a decision
- Many diseases cannot be treated with one’s own cord blood
- Currently there is only a 1 in 2700 chance that cord blood stem cells will be needed to treat your child or a relative.
- It is also important to know that a child’s own cord blood stem cells CANNOT be used on that child’s genetic disease or cancers of the blood. An unaffected child’s cord blood can be used to help another child.
- Private donation of umbilical cord blood should be considered when an immediate family member has a specific disease diagnosis that is known to be treatable by cord blood stem cell transplant.
Does Kamm McKenzie OBGYN charge a collection fee?
- Because private cord blood banking is considered elective, there is a $200 fee for the collection procedure. Most of the time this IS NOT covered by insurance companies. Please contact your insurance provider to determine your coverage. The CPT (procedure) code is S2140 and the ICD-9 code is V59.09.
- The physicians have all agreed to collect cord blood free of charge for those who choose to donate to a public cord blood bank.
