can you bank cord blood still?

[~Megan~]

is that an option at homebirths? what if you do delayed cord cutting?

nak

[pamamidwife]

It's pretty much the same as when I get blood to type baby for RH negative moms.

I usually just draw blood out of the cord with a syringe while it's still attached. No need to cut it at all -

I've tried to get blood from cords (usually up by the placenta) long after the placenta has been birthed, but it's a bit more tricky. Not sure how much blood they need with cord blood banking (haven't had a client do this), but I'm sure they'd give you instructions on all that.

[~Megan~]

They need about one ounce for testing and storage.

[pamamidwife]

That's about the same amount for blood typing. I'll even venture to bet it's the same type of tube, too.

(I SWEAR I'm not stalking you on this board! I promise! LOL)

[~Megan~]

I'm glad you answered. But if I start seeing your car outside I might get suspicious

[pamamidwife]

well, I guess if you start seeing red lipstick on Amara's cheeks, then you should just get a restraining order.

[georgia]

Ok, stalkers

This is just my experience, of course , but my mws barely had enough blood to do the eldon (sp?) cards for the Rh testing...I wouldn't let anyone near me or babe for quite awhile, so we def. had delayed cord cutting! From what I understand, there was just hardly any blood left in the um. cord to squeeze any blood out. I'm sure you'd want to research that further. Did you do cord blood banking with your first??

All the best,

Amy

[~Megan~]

No we didn't bank then but since dd has been born both my grandparents have had cancer. My grandfather came through just fine but my grandmother has leukemia and is much weaker than he is. I would love to be able to give dd's cord blood to her. Maybe if I can do that with the next child I can help someone else if we ever need it again.

[lorijds]

We have banked blood at one birth in our facility, and it was such a pain in the ass, we really don't recommend it. Maybe if you are birthing with someone who has done this alot, it would be alot easier.

We had never done it before, and so while the mom was in labor, the mw and I (I'm the nurse) read and re-read the instructions. Then, although the mom really wanted to labor and push in the tub, we had to make her choose between getting out of the tub to get the cord blood or staying in the tub and not getting the blood. So the collection of the cord blood really dictated where the mom birthed. It was a freakin mess. The collection kit required a heck of alot more than 1 ounce, let me tell you. The collection kit looked like the opposite of a blood tubing, if you know what I mean. It stated that we needed to collect as much as possible, and we collected at least 40ccs, I would guess. Blood I personally think should have been in the baby. Maybe that is something that you should ask about when you explore collection agencies. We had to clamp the cord before it was done pulsating, too, something we never usually do.

I guess you should check with your midwife and see how comfortable she is with the entire event. It would suck to have to decide a caregiver based on their ability to collect cord blood. We try to be as low intervention as possible; as a result, we are not proficient in such a procedure (I know they do this in the hospital more frequently) and it ended up dictating mom's position for birth and early cord clamping. Also, we spent a significant period of time during transition and immediately after birth dinking with the damn collection kit set-up, time we really would have rather spent with the mom and baby!



Lori