Umbilical cord blood collection: do patients really understand?
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Nathan S. Fox
Abstract
Background: Pregnant patients have the option of storing their infant's cord blood with a private/commercial company for possible future use by the child or other family members. Some patients also have the option to donate the cord blood to a public bank for anyone to use. We evaluated patient understanding about cord blood banking in a cohort of patients with access to both options.
Methods: Anonymous questionnaires were collected from 325 pregnant patients seen in our Antepartum Testing Unit.
Results: Compared to those donating to a public bank, women planning on storing with a private/commercial company were less likely to believe that a suitable donor could be found from a public cord blood bank. Women had a strikingly poor understanding regarding the current uses for cord blood therapy. When asked whether cord blood has been used successfully to treat Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and spinal cord injury only 28%, 24%, and 24%, respectively, correctly knew that it had not.
Conclusions: Obstetricians should assume that pregnant women are poorly informed about cord blood banking. The decision making process should be conducted with the goal of ensuring every pregnant woman the opportunity to make a well informed decision about cord blood banking.
©2007 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
Articles in the same Issue
- WAPM-Newsletter No 1/2007 8th WORLD CONGRESS OF PERINATAL MEDICINE in Florence, Italy, September 9–13, 2007
- Poverty and perinatal health
- Maternal mortality in Africa
- Lessons learned from four advanced abdominal pregnancies at an East African Health Center
- Incidence and correlates of cesarean section in a capital city of a middle-income country
- Metabolic changes, hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis and oxidative stress after short-term starvation in healthy pregnant women
- Does maternal docosahexaenoic acid supplementation during pregnancy and lactation lower BMI in late infancy?
- Feasibility of a randomized controlled trial testing nifedipine vs. placebo for the treatment of preterm labor
- Atosiban versus usual care for the management of preterm labor
- Umbilical cord blood collection: do patients really understand?
- Comparison between singleton- and triplet-specific “growth” curves to detect growth restricted triplet infants
- Role of visfatin, insulin-like growth factor-I and insulin in fetal growth
- Dynamic QT/RR relationship of cardiac conduction in premature infants treated with low-dose doxapram hydrochloride
- Risk factors and outcomes for ventilator-associated pneumonia in neonatal intensive care unit patients
- Neonatal outcomes in triplet pregnancies: assisted reproduction versus spontaneous conception
- Sequela of preterm versus term infants born to mothers on a methadone maintenance program: differential course of neonatal abstinence syndrome
- Vacuum extraction and autonomic balance in human infants
- Accuracy of second trimester fetal head circumference and biparietal diameter for predicting the time of spontaneous birth
- Reply
- Induction of labor with oral misoprostol for premature rupture of membranes at term in women with unfavorable cervix
- Reply
- In memoriam: Prof. Shouichi Sakamoto
- Congress Calendar
Articles in the same Issue
- WAPM-Newsletter No 1/2007 8th WORLD CONGRESS OF PERINATAL MEDICINE in Florence, Italy, September 9–13, 2007
- Poverty and perinatal health
- Maternal mortality in Africa
- Lessons learned from four advanced abdominal pregnancies at an East African Health Center
- Incidence and correlates of cesarean section in a capital city of a middle-income country
- Metabolic changes, hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis and oxidative stress after short-term starvation in healthy pregnant women
- Does maternal docosahexaenoic acid supplementation during pregnancy and lactation lower BMI in late infancy?
- Feasibility of a randomized controlled trial testing nifedipine vs. placebo for the treatment of preterm labor
- Atosiban versus usual care for the management of preterm labor
- Umbilical cord blood collection: do patients really understand?
- Comparison between singleton- and triplet-specific “growth” curves to detect growth restricted triplet infants
- Role of visfatin, insulin-like growth factor-I and insulin in fetal growth
- Dynamic QT/RR relationship of cardiac conduction in premature infants treated with low-dose doxapram hydrochloride
- Risk factors and outcomes for ventilator-associated pneumonia in neonatal intensive care unit patients
- Neonatal outcomes in triplet pregnancies: assisted reproduction versus spontaneous conception
- Sequela of preterm versus term infants born to mothers on a methadone maintenance program: differential course of neonatal abstinence syndrome
- Vacuum extraction and autonomic balance in human infants
- Accuracy of second trimester fetal head circumference and biparietal diameter for predicting the time of spontaneous birth
- Reply
- Induction of labor with oral misoprostol for premature rupture of membranes at term in women with unfavorable cervix
- Reply
- In memoriam: Prof. Shouichi Sakamoto
- Congress Calendar
