What to Expect
When you arrive at the hospital, let your delivery team know that you are donating umbilical cord blood. If you arrive during our staffed hours, the Cord Blood Donation Coordinator will be notified to review and sign the consent with you.
Donating cord blood will not change your labor or delivery in any way. During this time, all the focus is on you and your baby. After the birth of your baby, the medical staff delivers the placenta and umbilical cord normally.
Delayed cord clamping does not exclude you from donating. Then the cord and placenta are given to the Cord Blood Donation Program to process the stem cells. If you arrive outside of our staffed hours, your doctor or midwife can review the consent with you and collect the cord blood donation.
After Donation
Once the cord blood has been collected, it will be processed by a Donation Coordinator to see if it meets the banking requirements. Cord blood donations must contain enough stem cells to be stored for use in transplant.
If the donation is eligible to be banked, a Donation Coordinator will come meet you on the post partum floor to complete a medical history questionnaire with you. They will also coordinate a blood draw so we can be sure the cord blood is safe to donate. If the cord blood did not meet the banking requirements, or if you decline the blood draw, the donation can be used in research to investigate other uses of cord blood.
