The problem is that most people still don t realize the option exists. The umbilical chords of more than 3.9 million of the 4 million babies born a year continue to be thrown in the trash as hazardous waste, Dearth says. Nurses can help spread the word to parents that they have three options when it comes to umbilical cord blood preservation. One is to store the blood for the family. The baby s cord blood is a guaranteed match for the newborn and there is a one in four chance that it will match a sibling.
Parents can also elect to donate the cord blood to a blood bank or to research.
Cryo-Cell, the American Red Cross and the American Cancer Society have lists of research organizations that want the cord blood. There is no charge to parents for donating the blood. Dearth says that nurses play an important role in cord blood collection. Often the physician clamps the cord and hands it off to the nurse to do the collection. The collecting process is simple.