Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Nov
19
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“Cord Blood Is Taken For All Births…Is That A Problem?”
“Cord blood is taken for all births. It’s part of policy and procedure. Is that a problem?” – CNM Midwife to parents inquiring why cord blood was collected at their child’s birth.
There are 41 comments to this post.
taken for what? wow….
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Heather Reply:
November 19th, 2010 at 1:27 pm (Quote)
Blood typing and as many of the tests that they can get done with what they draw to minimize heel sticks.
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sandi Reply:
November 19th, 2010 at 1:35 pm (Quote)
Thanks Heather – but i work in the medical field. It was more like “What are you doing with that blood that could be going to good uses – like the baby or when the cord needs to be clamped ASAP for donation.” i should have been clearer.
there have been a number of cases as of late that bloods from babies are being collected by hospitals and then stored for research that the pt/parents are not actually informed of which directly which is actually my concern as it is a decent amount of blood in a cord – way more needed for “routine” blood tests usually done via heel sticks.
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch Reply:
November 19th, 2010 at 2:57 pm (Quote)
Survey saaaaays… BZZZT! The tests are performed from a few drops of blood taken during a heel stick.
This CNM is obviously “routinely” harvesting stem cells. Sometimes parents are given the option of donating to a cord blood bank for stem cells, to help pediatric cancer patients. They usually have to sign lots of paperwork to do so. More commonly, parents pay through the nose for a chance to harvest and store their own child’s blood in a personal cryo-vault, in case their own child develops cancer or some other disease requiring therapy from stem cells that ordinarily would come from bone marrow.
So, my question is, how much is this corrupt midwife being paid for her barely-legit harvests?
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Leigh Reply:
November 20th, 2010 at 2:19 pm (Quote)
You’re such a snot, Sarah. There are several tests that can be done from cord blood, including blood typing. It is true that the newborn metabolic screenings are done from heelsticks when the baby is at least 24 hours old, but that is clearly NOT what Heather is referring to. The survey actually says that you are inappropriately snarky and think you know more than you do.
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Sheva Reply:
November 20th, 2010 at 3:53 pm (Quote)
Actually, the amount they harvest from the cord is much more than they need for the testing they do from the heel stick. And they still do the heel sticks, as I understand it. So I’m going to be asking more questions at the next birth I’m at. I’m not convinced that Sarah isn’t on to something.
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Leigh Reply:
November 20th, 2010 at 4:11 pm (Quote)
Sarah may be on to something. It is too bad she has to present her somewhat outrageous (yet possibly true) theory as a FACT, meanwhile insulting another person who had legitimate input.
I have harvested cord blood many times. Sometimes, I take a whole lot, because the parents are harvesting and storing stem cells. Other times, I take one measly little tube for blood typing purposes. Regardless of the amount or the purpose, the parents are always informed and give consent.
The metabolic screening heelsticks are done when the baby is at least 24 hours old, because the baby must digest something before they are all accurate. Cord blood has nothing to do with this. Other heelsticks may be done for testing blood sugar/other reasons.
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I’m wondering if they were misinterpreting What she meant by “cord blood.” Instead of the amount taken for cord blood banking, many hospitals routinely take samples of cord blood for diagnostic purposes. It’s a vial of blood from the vein and an artery from the cord after it’s cut.
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This is pretty common. What happened at my births (at 2 different hospitals) was the cord blood was drawn and then you were given a pamplet from a cord blood bank company. The intention is to get you to sign up with an expensive private “blood bank” and they will deposit and hold your baby’s cord blood. The idea is that you can then request the blood for your child to help with certain medical problems. My problem with this is that (1) They usually do not ask you before they draw the blood, they just do it; (2) These private “blood banks” are very very expensive (usually a significant down payment and large monthly fees or very large upfront total sum); (3) You do not get any money back if you never have to use the blood; (4) Good luck getting a straight answer about what happens to the blood if you decide not to bank it, what happens to it if it’s never used or for how long they will bank it before they decide you’re not going to need it.
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sandi Reply:
November 19th, 2010 at 1:39 pm (Quote)
i could go on a tirade for house on the fact that so many parents are scared into banking (at their cost) cord blood.
you forgot a few other things:
5. children with the same parents only have a 25% chance of being a perfect match to one another
6. The companies to not guarantee the freeze/thaw of cells if ever needed
7. in many cases the cells cannot be given back to the child from whom it came from – it was those stem cells that gave rise to the disease in the first place.
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It must have been in the tone, because I just don’t see the big deal. There should have been a consent form to sign somewhere, but this is common everywhere. It’s where they type the baby’s blood and minimize heel sticks as much as possible. I prefer they take the testing blood from the cord myself, since there are no nerves to cause baby pain for it (I’m RH- and take RH incompatibility seriously since my sister and I were the only survivors of my mother’s womb–both of us are RH-).
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch Reply:
November 19th, 2010 at 3:35 pm (Quote)
My midwife waited until my two youngest children were drunk on breastmilk and dozing at the breast. They slept through the heel sticks. 
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Even more reason to delay cord clamping.
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Actually yes everyone should have a problem with this practice. There is probably a far reaching effect of taking all of those stem cells from the newborns that we wont see or recognize for a few generations. One of my favorite quotes was from a doctor who said “it’s their stem cells let them have them”.
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MamaWrench Reply:
November 19th, 2010 at 2:23 pm (Quote)
I actually voluntarily donated my son’s stem cells. I have mixed feelings about the benefits of delayed clamping / lotus birth, but on the other hand I would rather stem cells be taken from my living child’s cord versus a dead fetus.
But, that was MY choice, made by INFORMED consent. I’ve never even HEARD of a hospital that takes cord blood as a matter of policy. That kind of boggles my mind. What could they possibly get from the cord blood that they can’t get from a normal blood draw?
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Sheva Reply:
November 20th, 2010 at 3:57 pm (Quote)
At all the hospital births I’ve attended (admittedly not a huge number) the docs drew cord blood, and not just a little, either. They said it was to minimize heel sticks, but my midwife does one stick, 2-3 days after the birth, so I’m not sure how many sticks the hospitals are doing nowadays.
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For our first we wanted our baby to keep her cord blood herself so wanted to delay cord clamping. The red cross wanted us to donate the blood and showed up asking(demanding) consent to donate while I was in transition. We declined on the basis that we wanted to delay cord clamping. The OB assured us that we could do both delayed cord clamping and still donate (Bald-faced lie) So the red cross got my baby’s blood and she didn’t get any of the benefits of it.
It’s been six years and I’m still pissed about it.
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch had this to say,
Nov 19, 2010 @ 3:07 pm (Quote)
You’re bloody well right I have a problem! I don’t care that you already have plans for my baby’s stem cells. My baby’s plans are different. We do not cut the cord until it stops pulsing. There are too many risks associated with premature cord cutting – hypoxia, haemorrhage being the biggies – and we are well read enough to know about them.
And it has NEVER been hospital policy anywhere that I have lived to “routinely” harvest stem cells from cord blood, any more than it is routine to ask patients to donate a pint of blood or plasma, or a kidney, or a heart, or any other organ. Cord blood counts as an organ. You have to jump through hoops to donate organs…
… except for the removed prepuces of mutilated boys, which instead of being tossed out in a biohazard bag are generally sold to biomedical manufacturers to make bandages for burn victims, and cosmetics manufacturers to make all sorts of things. Hmm. I wonder about the “henna and placenta” hair conditioning masks I’ve seen, now.
Say, how much money are you making under the table from the stem cells you “routinely” harvest, anyway?
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Sada Reply:
November 19th, 2010 at 4:50 pm (Quote)
Yes, that IS where they get the placenta for those hair treatments and lotions.
There is a whole frightening sub-set of income for hospitals off of the “leftovers” from births and circumcisions. Which begs the question of why a hospital birth costs so much.
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Dreamy Reply:
November 19th, 2010 at 7:56 pm (Quote)
Really? Do you have a link for that? I’m pretty sure it’s usually sheep’s placenta.
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Liz Reply:
November 20th, 2010 at 9:10 am (Quote)
LOL, I have actually read that it was plant placenta (plants have placentas?!) Whatever the case there needs to be informed consent.
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Sada Reply:
November 20th, 2010 at 5:04 pm (Quote)
Not sure that I can provide a weblink for it, actually! The main “drugstore” brand of placenta hair treatment does adamently claim to use sheep’s placenta. But I worked for a department store cosmetics company, and we had a wrinkle cream that used placenta…we were told that it *was* human, but we weren’t supposed to tell our customers that. Just like we weren’t supposed to tell them about the soy & wild yam ingredients in another cream, or the lead in the lipsticks. And there was another line that carried a placenta-containing hair treatment, same deal there…not supposed to tell the customers, but we “talked amongst ourselves”.
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Dreamy Reply:
November 21st, 2010 at 10:10 am (Quote)
Yeah… I’m not absolutely saying you were mistaken/misinformed… Hey– though it sounds crazy, stranger things have happened! But that’s still urban-legend-level “evidence,” YKWIM? Hearsay, if you will. I get that you also weren’t supposed to tell your customers about soy and wild yam, and those are definitely in certain products. But that in itself doesn’t convince me that there’s human placenta product in wrinkle creams and shampoos.
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Lil had this to say,
Nov 19, 2010 @ 5:44 pm (Quote)
I actually tried offering to donate my twins’ cords. One baby was in SCBU and the other in the morgue, and I was in a separate room after a C-section with 2 empty cots…I wanted something worthwhile to happen from what seemed to be turning into a complete disaster. However, the midwives were shocked at my questions and eventually the matron said ‘don’t be silly, they’re all incinerated with the rest of the rubbish!’.
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BeckyMomma had this to say,
Nov 19, 2010 @ 6:31 pm (Quote)
Actually, in the hospitals where I’ve worked, the tubes taken from cord blood are used for blood typing. It’s drawn after the cord is cut.
The heal stick tests they can’t do on cord blood because it needs to be 100% babies (bili tests and glucose). Also, I’ve never worked in a huge hospital where the blood is taken for research,known or not, but that’s just my experience.
I totally agree, the CNM was not understanding the question, OR this was a HUGE dodge.
I think CNMs in the hospital are fighting an uphill battle. If any of their patients do something that’s considered “odd” it’s held against the CNM. I really feel for them most of the time, since they are practicing on the edge of a very tall cliff. Pretty much all the docs have it in for them. (In America)
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This comment was made by a CNM at the hospital where my twins were born. We had already made a formal complaint about the ‘care’ we received and requested an explanation from the hospital as to why cord blood was taken and what was done with it. The hospital refused to address this question and the complaint was closed without any answer being given to us.
We contacted the pathology company and found out that not only were NO TESTS done on the cord blood, but that it was simply THROWN OUT after seven days. We have no idea what the boys’ blood type is.
So why was it taken in the first place, and without express consent to boot? I’d love to get an explanation.
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Jane Reply:
November 20th, 2010 at 4:38 pm (Quote)
Are you friends with anyone at the local newspaper? This sounds like something they might be interested in.
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Amelia Reply:
March 18th, 2011 at 8:23 pm (Quote)
Serene has the most likely answer. At my hospital they used to take cord blood from all babies to check for Rh incompatibilities. Then they changed protocol to just Rh neg moms, but there have been some cases of incompatibilities with O+ moms as well, so now we take cord blood from Rh neg and Opos moms at delivery. I believe the O+ mom’s baby’s cord blood is discarded if no incompatibilities show up in the baby. This would all be done without consent. The other test that is done without consent is cord blood gases. If the delivery was traumatic for the baby, these would be sent off to assess for low oxygen in the blood.
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Charity had this to say,
Nov 20, 2010 @ 8:39 pm (Quote)
The hospital here does cord blood sampling, but they only take a very small amount… Probably still more than they’d need for all the tests they run in the first year (including the twice daily bilirubin tests my first two went through). I refused sampling with my last one and was given the third degree. When I finally asked, “Why do you need it? I have never received any results from tests you’ve done on cord blood in the past, so I can only assume you’re banking it for stem cell research. Is that why it’s so upsetting that I’m not consenting?” The nurse shut up.
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In Australia its done if there is a chance that there may be a Rh incompatibility, a known genetic or congenital condition, or as part of a research trial. But always with consent. I really do wonder what she was doing?? If it was thrown out it seems that there was no pathology request with it, just collected “just in case”, or on the sly.
I learned today that stem cell donations here must be accompanied by signed documentation or they will be discarded, something to do with traceability If its untraceable, its unusable. Very happy about that.
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Kay, thanks for dodging the question, would you like to try again?
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