Precious gift: SouthFlorida.com

Donating umbilical cord blood to public bank is an investment in someone else's future.

Having a baby is an incredibly special event. Your child's arrival could also birth a momentous occasion for someone with a life-threatening disease. Umbilical cord blood, which was previously thrown away as medical waste, can now be collected and preserved to treat more than 70 diseases, including leukemia, lymphoma and sickle cell anemia.
If you decide not to privately bank your umbilical cord blood, which can be quite expensive, you still don't have to let it go to waste.
If you choose to donate umbilical cord blood, your labor and delivery will not be affected. No blood is taken from your baby. It is only taken from the umbilical cord after your baby is born. The cord blood can then be used to treat.
It is important to note that these are not embryonic cells (cells taken from an embryo). Cord blood has widespread religious and political support. It is collected without harming the mother or the baby. In contrast, the harvesting of embryonic stem cells involves the controversial removal of cells from unborn human embryos.
Public cord blood banks cover the costs to collect, test and store umbilical cord blood. There is no cost to the parents who choose to donate. Because of funding limitations, it is not possible to donate cord blood at every hospital. But parents who deliver their babies at South Miami Hospital can now donate their baby's umbilical cord blood by filling out a simple consent form. It is then collected, processed, stored and placed into the National Marrow Donor Program's stem cell database for use worldwide.
In 2006, Dr. Aldrich, a cardiologist at South Miami Hospital, was told that his then-8-year-old son had leukemia. He was unable to locate a bone marrow match and thankfully learned about cord blood transplants. Shortly thereafter, his son received a double cord blood transplant (from two different donors), which put his son into remission. Through his own experience, Aldrich was inspired to campaign for a public cord blood collection center at South Miami Hospital. In January of 2009, his dream was put into action.
When Aldrich contacted Denise Woods, the vice president of South Miami Hospital's Center for Women & Infants in October 2006, she decided to get involved.

"It made sense," she said. "This program is going to save lives. With the high volume of deliveries at South Miami Hospital [more than 4,600 per year] and the amount of concentrated diversity we have in South Florida, we're helping to create a more diverse donor pool. And if you ever needed it, then the registry would work for you."

Ethnic populations are critically underrepresented within the National Marrow Donor Program database. Because it is more likely that a person will find a match within their own genetic group, the NMDP is actively seeking increased representation by various minorities. These include African-Americans, Native Americans, Alaskan Natives, Asians, Pacific Islanders and Hispanics.
CORD:USE is an Orlando-based company that processes the donated cord blood from South Miami Hospital. CORD:USE works with the NDMP to make it available through the Be the Match Registry.

"Each month, more than 350 patients find a matching adult donor or cord blood unit on the Be the Match Registry and receive a transplant facilitated by the NMDP," said Ed Guindi, M.D., CORD:USE president.

"The tissue-matching requirements of cord blood are much less stringent than that for bone marrow. Therefore, a dying patient is more likely to find a suitable cord blood match than a bone marrow match. Also, the collection of stem cells from umbilical cord blood is much more simple, cost-effective and painless."

The partnership with CORD:USE and South Miami Hospital is the only such program currently set up in South Florida. If you cannot give birth at South Miami Hospital and choose not to privately bank your cord blood, you still have options.
One choice is to ask your hospital whether it accepts cord blood donations for research purposes. You may also be able to donate cord blood by contacting Cryobanks International (800-869-8608; www.cryo-intl.com). Cryobanks International accepts donations from anywhere in the continental United States to be listed on the Be the Match Registry.

"The saddest thing is when people look for a donor, and there is none," Aldrich said. "If someone from South Florida donates, it can be the greatest gift that they ever give."