Donating Cord Blood

Public cord blood banks rely on donations from the public in order to help others in need of stem cell transplants, as well as for critical medical research.

There is no direct cost to donate with any of the public banks listed here - though your birth practitioner may require additional fees for the collection service (most are willing to donate their time for a good cause - but they are not obligated to do so, so it should be clarified beforehand.)

In The United States:

There are a number of hospitals participating with national or regional public cord banks to facilitate donations. The National Marrow Donor Program offers a comprehensive list of participating hospitals throughout the United States. Contact the closest participating hospital or the public bank with which they work with for more information and help.

Some hospitals do not participate with registered public banks directly (and won't be listed as such), but may still accept cord blood donations for research purposes.

For those without a hospital listed in their region, Cryobanks International accepts donations (to qualified participants) on behalf of the National Marrow Donor Program's Be The Match Registry, which allows donors to receive a kit at no charge for cord blood collection which can then be shipped back (again at no charge). Cryobanks also offers a private storage facility (with associated costs), which should not be confused with the BTMR donations.

In Canada:

There are fewer individual public cord banks accepting donations, but most of those available work nationally (kits and collected donations are couriered).
These include:

The Alberta Cord Blood Bank
http://www.acbb.ca
Suite 408 College Plaza
8215 - 112 Street
Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2C8
1-780-492-2673

Victoria Angel - Registry of Hope
http://www.cellsforlife.com/angel-blood.htm
1-877-235-1997 Ext 0

Hema-Quebec
http://www.hema-quebec.qc.ca/anglais/cellulessouches/sangcordon.htm

Internationally:

There are a number of public cord blood banks available outside Canada and the United States for those wishing to donate cord blood as well.

A good resource for locating them is the Caitlin Raymond International Registry (CRIR), which works with 99 international registries and cord blood banks in 46 countries, providing a directory of many on their site.