UMBILICAL CORD BLOOD: donor requirements

Thank you for contacting the Victoria Angel Registry of Hope and Cells for Life. Please consider the following points carefully prior to making the decision to donate your baby’s cord blood.

REVIEW OF THE PROCESS

This review will help you to understand the process of donating your baby’s cord blood to the Victoria Angel Registry of Hope:

1. Potential donors should be less than 34 weeks pregnant to ensure there is enough time to complete and review all necessary documents witth the Registry, and take delivery of the cord blood collection kit.

2. Please inform your delivering physician or midwife about your involvement with the Victoria Angel Registry of Hope. You will need to ensure that the hospital and/or your healthcare professional will not charge you for collecting the cord blood sample (note: most healthcare professionals do not require payment if they know that you are donating your sample for public use).

3. All potential donors of cord blood must complete a MEDICAL HISTORY questionnaire and a REGISTRATION form prior to receiving the collection kit. These PDF forms can be downloaded from the Victoria Angel REGISTER section (see red arrow above). Once the completed forms have been faxed or mailed to our office, your information will be reviewed and you will be contacted by a member of the Registry’s team.

4. Due to limited funds, we are unable to accept all offered samples. Our staff will contact you to let you know if we are able to accept your sample.

5. All donating couples are required to sign a legal contract which stipulates that they: a) relinquish all rights to the blood sample and, b) understand that the sample will be made available internationally to treat a person in need.

6. Arrangements will be made to have you pick up the umbilical cord blood collection kit from our office in Markham . If you are unable to have the kit picked up, we will ship it to you free of charge.

7. Upon receipt of the collection kit, you will need to review its contents and to keep it in a safe place at room temperature. You must remember to take this kit with you to the hospital when you are ready to deliver and present it to the delivery team!

8. After the safe arrival of your baby, the delivery team will collect the cord blood from the cut cord and will collect 3 small vials of maternal blood for medical testing purposes. The collection bag and the vials of blood must be packaged in the zip lock bags as per the directions in the kit. You will be required to review and update the MEDICAL HISTORY Health Risk questionnaire and return it with the kit.

9. We kindly ask that you organize shipment of the donated cord blood to the Cells for Life office in Markham.  If you live in the Markham area, please bring the kit to the office to help us reduce the Registry’s shipping costs. Directions to Cells for Life will be included in your kit.

10. Once the donated cord blood is received by the Registry at Cells for Life, it will be processed and stored at our facility if it meets all testing criteria set out by the American Association of Blood Banks. The maternal blood that was collected, will be tested for various viral infections.

11. Maternal blood testing must be repeated when your child is 6 months old in order to meet the standards set out by cancer treatment centres and transplant facilities. We will ship a maternal testing kit at that time and ask that you take it to your doctor to have 3 small vials of blood collected and returned to Cells for Life for the required further testing.


SPECIAL NOTE:  please understand that the required testing must be completed or your donated sample will be discarded, and the time and expense associated with that sample will have been wasted.

If you agree to all of the above, please complete and submit the MEDICAL HISTORY questionnaire and REGISTRATION form (REGISTER).

We realize that this process requires potential donors to help with many steps along the way, and we truly appreciate the generosity and effort involved. We wish you all the best with your pregnancy and delivery. 


Sincerely,

The Cells for Life team.

If you have any questions, please telephone our toll-free number:
1-877-235-1997 Ext 0.

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