Re: [ozmidwifery] Cord Blood Storage

[Marilyn Kleidon]

Hi Tina and all:   I have been unable to get to the cryosite website you provided Tina, but have a list of several US cord blood site. The main one being The Parents Guide to Cord Blood: www.parentsguidecordblood.com which does answer in detail many questions. In particular the collection of the cord blood. On the parent's guide site the collection does not take place UNTIL the placenta has been delivered. The other sites, all private cord blood banks (www.corcell.com, www.cordblood.com, www.cryo-cell.com, and www.viacord.com), talk about collection AFTER the cord has been cut and clamped. To an australian this may sound like active management, but actually IN MOST cases in the USA it isn't. It isn't quite physiological management, but it is expectant management in most cases in that no oxytocic is given until AFTER the placenta is born and then only if necessary : PPH. It was my experience, that unless the neonate needed to be intubated the cord WAS NOT CUT until after it had finished pulsing, even in the most interventionist of hospitals there. That is what you will find in USA literature and in practice in hospitals as well as homebirth at least in California and Washington (the state). If cryosite is promoting active management of third stage here in Australia then I would venture that the company is trying to fit  in with accepted hospital practice to promote their product: that is, nothing has to be done any differently.   If you go to the above sites, you will find the the process of labelling etc. quite full on. At least in the USA they recommend having a nurse designated to just collect the cord blood which is done in another room after the placenta has been delivered, leaving the doctor or midwife ( yes, they use that term, midwifery is alive and well in the USA:Certified Nurse Midwives in hospital settings as well as at home) to concentrate on the mother and baby. You also need to collect blood from the mother: again same old regular venipuncture.   In my experience at a homebirth the most annoying and tedious part was the paperwork and the labelling. We had a physiologic third stage, baby getting most of the placental blood as she was a little stunned at birth, needed some oxygen and so definetly no early cutting of cord and baby was on the floor with mum kneeling when baby pinked up and was in mums arms, AND the cord had finished pulsing the blood was collected from the placenta, and we just got our 50 mLs. As far as I am aware it was an adequate sample. There was NO MENTION of active management of third stage. Of course you will get more cord blood for storage if you cut and clamp the cord earlier rather than later, but as part of our participation in the collection we emphasised best practise for mum and baby and if in the process the cord blood sample was inadequate then so be it. The parents accepted this. You will find on the parents guide site collection techniqe for c/s too which is of course no different as you have the placenta and cord and collect into the bag.   marilyn ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, July 05, 2003 6:25 AM Subject: Re: [ozmidwifery] Cord Blood Storage In a message dated 30/06/03 12:19:08 PM AUS Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I have a client living in North-west Victoria who is keen to keep and store her baby's cord blood for use at a later date if required.  Has anyone had any experience of this and can you give me a contact? Thanks Anne Hi Anne, we had a visit from a representative of Cryosite cord blood collection agency at uni a few months ago..the woman (a midwife) gave a bit of a run down on the procedure of cord blood collection for storage and future use and Cryosite's facilities...you can access their website at http://www.cryosite.com/cord_home.htm Like others here, we expressed to her our concerns on having to clamp the cord early for the procedure and denying the baby its on blood at birth. I suggest that everyone should have a read of the information on the cryosite website that women are receiveing in the spirit of "informed choice" for cord blood collection. Very interesting to say the least!!!!!!! Yours in reforming midwifery Tina Pettigrew. B Mid Student ACU Melb http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BMidStudentCollective/ " As we trust the flowers to open to new life                - So we can trust birth" Harriette Hartigan. -------------------------------------------------------------------