Umbilical Cord Blood Bank

What happens to your baby's cord blood if you don't bank it?

I'm finally going for my postpartum checkup today about 2 or 3 weeks late for it, but I'm going. lol. anyhow, right after I delivered, I could've sworn the nurse said "do we need cord blood" and my ob shook her head yes. I was too in the moment to say anything. But I did not sign up to bank my baby's blood b/c it was too expensive. what did they do with it??

Public Comments

1. Its gets discarded into a biohazard bag as medical waste with the placenta!
2. If you did not give your consent it should have been discarded as medical waste. If they did collect it the only thing I can think is that they donated it.
3. If you didnt bank, and you didnt donate, it gets thrown out in the trash. Thats why its so important to at least donate if you can so that the stem cells can help people. One of the things cord blood is used for is an alternative source of blood stem cells to use in bone marrow transplants. There are thousands of patients every day in need of transplant that having no matching donors on the marrow registry, and potentially half of those could have a match through cord blood if more people would donate. Obviously its too late for you to do, but thats ok, now you know. The National Marrow Donors Program does the public donation cord blood banks and anyone else wanting to do so can donate their cord blood by contacting them http://www.marrow.org