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When I was pregnant with Noah I looked into donating his umbilical cord blood to a public blood bank. To my surprise, there isn’t a single hospital in the state of Kentucky that will collect cord blood for public donation. You can pay to have your baby’s cord blood collected and stored at a private blood bank, but even that option is limited.
At the time I had so many other things to worry about that I didn’t pursue the issue further, but now I feel compelled to tackle it again. I recently joined the Be The Match registry, and blood cord donation is something the organization facilitates. I fired off an e-mail to Be The Match today and I want to share it here to give insight into my interest in blood cord donation. I plan on researching the process, availability, and difficulty of blood cord donation in Kentucky and I’ll probably be posting my findings here. This is just a heads up.
I live in Kentucky and I just had my first baby in February of this year. I looked into donating my baby’s cord blood before his birth and I was very disappointed to find that there isn’t a single hospital in the state that collects cord blood for public donation. I didn’t look into donation any further at the time, but I recently joined the Be The Match registry and it has reignited my spark about umbilical cord blood donation in Kentucky.
I think there is a need for outreach here about the importance of cord blood donation. Cord blood donation seems so simple to do if the resources are available. It’s hard for me to understand why we don’t have a single hospital in the state that will collect cord blood for public donation. Is it because we do not have public blood banks?
I live outside Louisville, KY. I can’t understand why there isn’t a public bank near. I can only find information on one blood bank at all, and it’s a private facility that will only accept cord blood from families who deliver their baby within a 4 hour driving range of the city. I think about all of the potential cord blood that is going to waste and I’m just incredulous.
I am currently researching the availability of blood banks in Kentucky and I’m trying to measure the level of difficulty to donate cord blood in this state. In my limited research so far, it seems like you really have to be determined and go above and beyond in order to figure out your options for cord blood donation. The possibility seems to die almost immediately based on the lack of public blood banks in the state. It should be easier to figure out the process for public cord blood donation in the state of Kentucky. Maybe that’s a need I can fill.
I’m basically reaching out to see if Be The Match can give me some more information on public cord blood donation in the state of Kentucky. Are you familiar with the issues I’m talking about? If so, what has been done about it and what can be done about it?
Thanks for your time. I am very appreciative and supportive of everything that Be The Match does.
I’m eager to hear what they have to say, and in the mean time I will continue my own research. (Thanks, Google!)
