RE: Cord blood donations for home birth

[skip]

Hi,

Anyone managed to donate cord blood following a home birth? Would like to, but not sure if it's an option locally. If not, why not? Skip.

[Bishberro]

Hi Skip - I donated cord blood after a birth at Kings but I think the lady who started the scheme did home births as well. That was over a year ago so depends how many people she's trained up since as it was just her trying to attend all the births. She's called Terry and it was the Kings Cord Scheme.

[Ann]

Talk to Terry. She is a midwife who coordiantes the scheme. You should have been given a leaflet with her contact details. if not call Kings and speak to someone on the Birth Centre and they will give you her contact details.

[sillywoman]

I don't think Terry has the resources to attend homebirths, at least that was the last I heard - would be very interested if anyone knows differently.

[Ann]

Apparently for the moment the answer is no. It's nothing to do with the midwives but more of a transportation ussue. There are strict guidelines about how these samples are transported and Kingscord are currently waiting for accreditation from the Human Tissue Authority. It will happen but for those of you having home births in the near future it won't be possible.

I will keep you posted when I hear otherwise.

[skip]

Thanks Ann, that would be great. Such a shame that this isn't available yet; such a precious resource to go to waste.

[sillywoman]

skip Wrote:

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such a precious resource to go to waste.

there's a school of thought that says that the cord should be left to finish pulsating before it's clamped and cut. That way the 'precious resource' of the stem cell rich cord blood goes to the person nature intended to have it (your baby) and they get the full benefit of it. Of course the feasibility of this depends on a lot of other factors such as condition of Mum & baby at birth, medical interventions in labour, and so on - but might be worth some further investigation, no?

[skip]

Good point. I agree that is optimal, but had assumed there would still be material to harvest from the cord; maybe not?