These are some of the questions pregnant women often ask about umbilical cord blood. For more information, talk to your doctor, or call the American Cord Blood Program at (508) 756-3076.

• What is umbilical cord blood?
• How is the umbilical cord blood used after donation?
• How Long Has Science Known About Umbilical Cord Blood?
• Which diseases can be treated with Cord Blood?
• How is Umbilical Cord Blood Collected?
• How does a person in need get access to the cord blood?
• Why Cord Blood Instead of Bone Marrow?
• What is Graft Versus Host Disease(GVHD)?
• What do I need to do?
• When must I decide?
• Who can participate?
• Is there any cost for donating?
• How can I obtain further information?

What is umbilical cord blood?

During pregnancy, your umbilical cord delivers nourishment to your baby. Umbilical cord blood also contains important stem cells: red cells that carry oxygen, white cells that fight disease, and platelets that help blood clot.

When patients are treated for leukemia and certain other diseases, their stem cells are often wiped out. Your donation of cord blood can replenish these vital cells, making recovery possible.

Every year, about 9000 patients are diagnosed with diseases that can be treated by transplantation. Most of these patients - 70 percent - are unable to find a donor through any of the donor registries. It is particularly difficult for African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and other ethnic minorites to find donors.

The life-threatening diseases that can be treated with cord blood include leukemia, Hodgkin's Disease, and other cancers. Genetic Diseases such as sickle-cell anemia, aplastic anemia, and Fanconi amenia also can be treated.

Your baby’s umbilical cord blood is sent to the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester. The cord blood is typed, frozen, and stored at the American Cord Blood Bank until it is needed. When a match is identified, the stored cord blood can be shipped anywhere in the world.

Although cord blood has only recently received widespread media attention, the first cord blood transplant took place in France in 1988, for a child with Fanconi Anemia. In 1991 a transplant was performed on a child with chronic myelogenous leukemia. Both transplants were successful, opening the doors to use cord blood for situations where traditional bone marrow was routinely utilized. Since then, approximately two-thirds of the cord blood transplants (over 300 to date) have been performed for malignant conditions. The other third have been for a variety of genetic blood disorders. Overall, cord blood transplants boast a very optimistic success rate.

A long list of leukemia’s, other cancers and blood diseases that are killing thousands of children and adults every year.

Immediately after delivery of the baby, the umbilical cord is clamped and the baby separated from the cord. At this point the attending physician will insert a syringed needle into the umbilical cord vein and draw the placental blood. The process is non-invasive, painless, and unlike traditional bone marrow collection which usually requires general anesthesia and recovery, usually takes from one to three minutes to complete. The American Cord Blood Program supplies each patient with the packaged materials and means for the physician or midwife to collect the cord blood at the hospital.

Once the attending physician or midwife has completed the collection process, the sample is either picked up by courier or sent to the American Cord Blood Program at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center via pre-arranged express return shipment. The collection kit contains complete directions for shipping specimens. Once at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center laboratory, technicians process, freeze and store the specimen in liquid nitrogen until it is needed.

When a patient in need of transplantation is identified, their antigens (just numbers to you and me) are entered into a national database. Once a cord blood sample is processed, the cord antigens are also entered into the same database, to be matched. When a match is identified, the patient’s physician is notified. The stored cord blood can be shipped anywhere in the world for transplantation.

First, collection of bone marrow is invasive and can be very painful as it requires extracting the marrow from the donor’s bones with a needle and syringe. This is an involved process that usually requires general anesthesia. It is also an expensive procedure. This creates a shortage of donors.

Second, bone marrow is difficult to match between donor and recipient. It is estimated that the current potential for a bone marrow match may be as high as one in a million for Caucasians and even higher for ethnic minority patients. The matching problem is further compounded by the fact that about 90% of the marrow volunteers listed in the donor registries are Caucasian. There is very little representation by minorities in the unrelated bone marrow donor programs.

Third, cord blood transplant patients may have a higher survival rate, a higher quality of life after transplant and less frequent hospitalization due to complications such as Graft Versus Host Disease. This makes the overall cost of cord blood transplantation significantly less costly than traditional bone marrow transplants and therefore potentially reimbursable by insurance companies.

GVHD is one of the most common and life threatening side effects of a bone marrow transplant. GVHD occurs when the transplanted material recognizes the recipient’s body as foreign, and therefore rejects it. This reduces the survival rate of the patient to less than 50% at two years post transplant. Cord blood transplants have been noticeable in the lack of serious GVHD.

If you decide to participate, you will be asked to sign a consent form. We will take a blood sample to test you for certain infections including AIDS, and will ask you to complete a brief questionnaire on your family’s medical history All information and files will be kept in strict confidence. Immediately after your baby is born and the cord is clamped, the umbilical cord blood will be collected by your doctor.

We encourage you to contact the American Cord Blood Program as early in your pregnancy as possible, preferably between 28 and 30 weeks.

We determine whether you are eligible to donate after reviewing your medical and family history questionnaires. Umbilical cord blood can be collected from all routine deliveries.

There is no cost to you for donating this gift of life. The American Cord Blood Program is a non-profit charitable corporation developed to make cord blood available to all patients in need of unrelated transplantation worldwide.

If you are interested in donating your baby’s cord blood, speak with your doctor or call the American Cord Blood Program at UMass at (508) 756-3076.