Blood in your baby’s umbilical cord after birth contains special cells that can be used in transplants to treat certain types of leukemia or other blood diseases. Donating cord blood is a lot like regular blood donation. If you donate it to a public bank, your baby’s cord blood can help to save the life of someone who needs a stem cell transplant. Or it might be used for vital medical research.After your baby is born and the umbilical cord is clamped, blood from it and the placenta are collected into a special kit. The process is painless and takes just a few minutes, and parents may not even be aware of it. Parents have to submit a form with the family medical history as well as a consent form. The blood is then sent for processing and storage at a public blood bank or private storage facility.Many parents choose to pay for private cord blood banking “just in case” someone in the family might need it for medical treatment one day. Cord blood from another family member might be an ideal match.

The baby can’t use the cord blood for his or her own transplant, if he or she develops a condition that could be helped by one. That’s because the condition would already be present in the cord blood, making it useless. And if no one else in the baby’s family ever needs it, the cord blood at a private bank will go to waste. At a public bank, though, the baby’s cord blood can be matched to any person who might need a transplant. If a family member does need a stem-cell transplant later, he or she may be matched with a donor from the public bank.

Donation to public cord-blood banks is free to parents, just like regular blood donation. Private banking of cord blood, though, can be very expensive. The initial fee, including some storage time, may be thousands of dollars. Annual storage fees after that first year or two may cost hundreds of dollars a year. Parents should be aware that scientists and doctors don’t yet know how long cord blood can be stored, whether it is banked publicly or privately, before it “expires.”