- Speak with the delivering doctor on the intention to donate cord blood.
- Call SCBB at 63945011 for a pre-screening and appointment after 32 weeks of gestation.
- Meet the SCBB nurse coordinator to sign the volunteer information and informed consent form and complete the maternal risk questionnaire.
- Affirm the volunteer information and informed consent form in delivery suite/labour room.
- Collection of maternal samples - approximately 30ml of blood.
- After the baby is delivered, the umbilical cord is clamped and cut, the cord blood is then collected before the placenta is delivered.
- The collected cord blood and the mother’s blood samples will be brought to SCBB laboratory for evaluation and processing.
whether to store or donate our baby's cord blood has been on my mind since 1st trimester. read up on the benefits of storage with private banks and always wondered if our child would need it. finally reached a decision during early 3rd trimester when both dear and myself find it unnecessary since it would not be helpful if there is unfortunately a genetic issue.
procrastinated the donation registration due to the seemingly troublesome pre-screening. upon confirmation from 2-3 friends that it was a relatively short and fuss-free process, i skipped the discussion with gynae portion as she was not in town till coming friday and called SCBB line on tuesday afternoon. the phone conversation took about 15 minutes, had to answer some background/health related questions and made appointment to sign necessary documents.
the face-to-face meeting is usually fixed in conjunction with gynae appointment. however, mine was done near home this afternoon as they do not work weekends and my upcoming gynae visit happens to be on saturday. doreen, nurse coordinator for SCBB, was friendly and helpful. though i have to mention that she rushed through the pretty lengthy questionnaire and shorten the meeting to only 20 minutes, she had all areas covered. managed to also find out that if in case immediate family (eg. parents/siblings) needs a transplant, we can check if the donated cord blood is still available, using either of the parent's IC no. to track.
hope the donation will be a success and save another person's life.