St. Joseph’s Health Offers Life-Saving Cord Blood Donation Program to Expectant Mothers
July 30, 2020Syracuse, NY (July 30, 2020) – Parents delivering babies at St. Joseph’s Health Hospital will now have the opportunity to voluntarily donate their baby’s umbilical cord blood to the Upstate Cord Blood Bank at Upstate Medical University. This new partnership will potentially increase cord blood donations that will be available for public use.
“St. Joseph’s Health is proud to partner with Upstate’s Cord Blood Bank on this initiative,” says John Bowen, MD, Medical Director of the Women & Children’s Department at St. Joseph’s Health Hospital. “As the only hospital in Upstate New York to be named a top maternity hospital by Newsweek, we take pride in providing a safe, compassionate, and personalized birthing experience. Now, during that experience, mothers have the potential to cure someone’s blood disease. We can help many people who are facing life threatening conditions.”
“We are pleased to be able to now offer our cord blood collection services to the parents delivering at St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center,” said Matthew Elkins, MD, PhD, medical director of the Upstate Cord Blood Bank. “Through their generous donations of their child’s cord blood, they are helping others in need, either through transplantation or further medical research.”
Cord blood donation is completely safe for mother and baby; labor and delivery is not affected. No blood is taken from a newborn; it is only removed from the umbilical cord after birth. The designation of Upstate Cord Blood Bank as a public blood bank is important in that there is no cost to donate and donated cord blood is available to anyone who needs it.
Once donated, the cord blood will be stored in the bank and made available to transplant centers in the United States and throughout the world for patients in need. The cord blood units will be listed on national and international registries in order to be matched to the patients who need them. Any units collected that are not suitable for transplantation will be made available to researchers, both at Upstate Medical University and around the country.
Deciding whether to donate cord blood is best done during the pregnancy. Each OB practice will provide expectant mothers with educational materials about cord blood donation and the forms required to donate. The forms are completed by the expectant parents at home and submitted directly to the cord blood bank. Once reviewed, the bank will notify St. Joseph’s Labor and Delivery unit, who alerts the provider of the mother’s intention to donate. Once the blood is removed from the umbilical cord, the donation is then packaged and transported to Upstate’s 20,000 square-foot facility that features a state of the art processing laboratory and cryogenic storage containers.
“The decision one makes to donate a child’s umbilical cord blood has the potential to save lives, through transplantation or biomedical research,” says Dr. Elkins.
The Upstate Cord Blood Bank operates under strict guidelines and protocols, established by state and federal health organizations, including the state Health Department; Food and Drug Administration; AABB Center for Cellular Therapies; and the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy.
About St. Joseph’s Health
St. Joseph’s Health is a regional non-profit health care system based in Syracuse, NY. St. Joseph’s has been an innovative leader in health care since our founding in 1869 as the first hospital open to the public in the city of Syracuse. Offering primary, specialty and home care, a Magnet-recognized hospital, and collaboration with community partners, St. Joseph's Health advances the well-being of the communities we serve through an expanding range of services to ensure our patients achieve optimum long-term health. St. Joseph’s is the only hospital in Syracuse to hold the LeapFrog ‘A’ safety rating, ranked by Consumer Reports among the top 15 heart surgery centers in the country, a designated Stroke Center and a U.S. News “Best Regional Hospital.” The St. Joseph’s Health Hospital NICU was the first in Syracuse and is celebrating its 50th Anniversary throughout 2020. St. Joseph’s Health is affiliated with Franciscan Companies and St. Joseph’s Physicians, and is a member of Trinity Health.For more information, visit www.sjhsyr.org.