• EvergreenHealth Medical Center – Kirkland, WA
• Overlake Medical Center – Bellevue, WA
• Swedish Medical Center – First Hill (Seattle) and Issaquah, WA
• UW Medical Center – Montlake – Seattle, WA
• Valley Medical Center – Renton, WA
• Skagit Valley Hospital – Mount Vernon, WA

• Contact a donation coordinator for any of the following:
• Donation forms
• Reminders before delivery
• Additional eligibility questions
• Alternative cord blood donation option

Cord blood donation is when blood from a clamped and cut cord is collected by a physician and saved for potential stem cell transplant, instead of being thrown away.

• Review the donor eligibility requirements
• See if your hospital is a participating collection site
• If your hospital is a participating collection site, let the labor and delivery team know you are donating the umbilical cord to the public cord blood bank through Bloodworks Cord Blood Donation Program. You will need to sign a consent form.
• Please note: Either before the birth of your baby or after, you will be asked for a blood sample to be tested for infectious diseases. This blood is taken only from you, not your baby.

These are our eligibility criteria:

• Expecting one baby (not twins or multiples).
• Be 18 years or older.
• A full-term pregnancy at time of delivery (37 weeks of gestation).
• Have no history of any blood disorders or cancer. The baby’s other immediate family (non-birth parent and siblings) must meet this requirement as well.

Because of the low numbers of registered bone marrow donors of color and their genetic diversity, non-Caucasian ethnic groups have lower likelihood of finding a match. For instance, African American patients have a 29% chance of finding a match. Cord blood transplantation offers a solution for people who do not have a bone marrow match.

Yes!  When following the ACOG recommendations for cord clamping, your provider can still collect the umbilical cord for subsequent cord blood donation.

After delivery the umbilical cord, ready to be discarded, is drained of the blood and stem cells. This collection is performed by a trained cord blood collector using a needle and collection bag similar to blood collection.

• EvergreenHealth Medical Center – Kirkland, WA
• Overlake Medical Center – Bellevue, WA
• Swedish Medical Center – First Hill (Seattle) and Issaquah, WA
• UW Medical Center – Montlake – Seattle, WA
• Valley Medical Center – Renton, WA
• Skagit Valley Hospital – Mount Vernon, WA

• The NMDP (formerly Be The Match) registry is open to anyone searching for a transplant. If the donation has not already been used and your family needs it, then it may be selected.
• However, this question is not a simple one to answer. With public banking, we have rigorous standards to ensure that the cord blood donation is an effective treatment for patients with diseases such as leukemia and sickle-cell anemia. Of the cord blood donations we receive, only about 20% are eligible for banking, with the majority just too low of volume to have enough active and healthy cells to be effective.
• We don’t want to waste any donations we receive, and many times we can use those ineligible cord blood donations for research. Without research, we wouldn’t have discovered the currently used treatments!
• Another point to consider is that many of the diseases and disorders cord blood is currently used to treat are genetic, so the baby’s cord blood would have the same genetic information and risk of containing (which is why we’re unable to bank donations from immediate family members with blood cancers, for example).
• The only way to ensure your family will have access to umbilical cord blood after your baby is born would be to privately save it. With private banking, they preserve any amount of cord blood collected.

If cord blood is not collected, it is discarded as medical waste. Families can also pay for private cord blood storage.

Contact a donation coordinator for any additional questions.