Last week I wrote an article on banking your menstrual blood and while I was doing the research for it, I made a phone call to ask a few questions.
About 2 ½ years ago, I was pregnant and looking for someone to take the cord blood. (I’m a organ donor, registered for bone marrow donation, and would even give a kidney to someone in need. If I’ve got it and can give it, I will.) Even though I’d received many promotional materials for widely-known cord blood banking facilities, none of them would take my cord blood. Not for free, not for research, no, no, no, was the answer I kept getting. I didn’t want to bank it. The cost was too high. So on a whim, I decided to ask CryoCell, the company I was on the phone with about menstrual blood banking, if they took cord blood donations either for other families in need or for research purposes. You see, I’m pregnant again and just can’t bear the thought of that precious cord blood and all of the miracles it can create becoming biomedical waste. Imagine my surprise when the answer was YES.
Yes, I can donate the cord blood to them. Yes, they will come to the hospital and get it. Yes, they will include all of the instructions in the packet they are sending in a few weeks. Granted, this facility is in my county so that might have something to do with the ease of donation, but either way, this is one happy momma. And apparently, I’m not the only mom who’s had this idea before. When I changed my Facebook status to “I finally found a company that will accept cord blood donation,” I got comments like, “I wish I had known,” and “I want the details,” and “I searched for months 7 years ago when I was pregnant – that industry has come a long way.”
If you think that I sound like an advertisement for CryoCell, rest assured that I have no financial stake or personal ties to the company. I’m just impressed that they’ll accept my donation. To see a list of conditions cord blood can be used for, click here. I hope that a family can use it, but research is almost just as important to me. Maybe they’ll make an important advancement in medicine that will, in turn, benefit my family someday.
If you’re interested in banking cord blood or menstrual blood or want to explore cord blood donation in your area, try CryoCell first (because I took the leg work out of it for you) OR do your own research. There are plenty of other blood banking companies and various types of donor registries out there. If you want to donate cord blood, remember that once you make the donation, you will also sign away all rights to that blood.
Feronians, would you consider donating your cord blood?