What’s Cord Blood Banking?

October 24, 2016

updated November 1, 2025 –

The umbilical cord and placenta are rich in stem cells that can save lives, and they can be accessed and donated after giving birth. With a little preparation, parents can choose to donate their baby’s cord blood, where it may one day help treat someone with leukemia, sickle cell disease or another serious illness.

What Is Cord Blood?

Cord blood is the blood that remains in your baby’s umbilical cord and placenta after delivery. It’s rich in hematopoietic stem cells, which can regenerate blood and immune systems. These cells are used in transplants for more than 80 diseases, including cancers, blood disorders and immune deficiencies.

Donating Cord Blood

Public cord blood donation is safe, free and helps the most possible people. In order to donate, you must deliver your baby at a participating cord blood collection facility. Once you’ve given consent in advance, a trained professional collects the cord blood after birth. The process is painless, takes just a few minutes and doesn’t interfere with delivery or care.

Here’s how donation typically works:

1. Enroll before 34 weeks of pregnancy. You’ll complete a brief health history and consent form.
2. Deliver at a participating hospital. Public banking programs are most often available at large medical centers and teaching hospitals (check the link above).
3. Collection and testing. After delivery, cord blood is collected, tested for infectious and genetic diseases and stored only if it meets strict safety and quality standards.
4. Added to the national registry. Approved units are listed in the Be The Match® or National Marrow Donor Program registry, available to any compatible patient in need.

Parents should know that if delayed umbilical cord clamping is part of their routine care, or if they choose delayed cord clamping, the volume of their donation would be significantly smaller and possibly not eligible for collection. This is a conversation to have with your primary care physician before birth but either way, labor and delivery will be safe and adhere to the parent’s wishes.

Occasionally a unit doesn’t qualify for transplant use; it may have become un-sterile during the collection process or the donor tested positive for an infectious disease for example. In these cases, the blood may still be used for medical research, helping scientists better understand blood and immune system diseases.

How to Donate Cord Blood – To learn where and how to donate, visit National Marrow Donor Program® and Be The Match® or ask your hospital if they participate in public collection.

In Case You’re Wondering About Private Banking

You may have seen ads suggesting that you “bank” your baby’s cord blood privately for your own family’s future use. Private cord blood banks are for-profit companies that store cord blood for your family only, for an initial processing fee plus annual storage fees. Most experts agree it’s not medically necessary in the vast majority of cases. As the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG): Umbilical Cord Blood Banking states, The routine collection and storage of umbilical cord blood with a private cord blood bank is not supported by the available evidence.

Here’s why:

• A child’s own cord blood can’t be used to treat leukemia or a genetic disease, since it carries the same genetic material.
• Private storage is rarely used in practice, the odds of a family ever needing it are extremely low.
• Public donation is free and can help anyone in need (including you or your baby!) right now.

There are times when private banking may be recommended, such as if a sibling or close relative already has a high-risk pediatric cancer treatable with stem cells, severe blood disorder or immune deficiency or metabolic disorder.

The Bottom Line

• Public donation: Free, evidence-based, saves lives, supported by AAP and ACOG.
• Private banking: Expensive, rarely used, only advisable or families with specific medical needs.
• Cord blood collection is safe and happens after your baby is born.

There are many decisions to make about your birth and immediate postpartum phase. We suggest contacting your hospital to understand their visitor policy, reading Why You Want a Birthing Friendly Hospital and staying updated on evidence-based vaccine guidance. Donating cord blood is one of those quiet, generous acts that can have a life-changing impact for someone you may never meet, but who will never forget your gift.

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