Making An Informed Choice

We recommend you register with CordBank any time after your 1st trimester (12 weeks). This ensures that the collection pack will arrive in plenty of time and allows training time for the lead maternity carer if necessary. Don’t worry if you are further along than that – just give us a call and we’ll get everything in place for you.

It’s a simple, painless and quick process. Once your baby is born, your midwife or doctor draws the umbilical cord blood into the special bag provided in your CordBank collection kit.

CordBank has trained over 750 midwives and doctors in New Zealand and can arrange for new or refresher training as required.

You can enrol online at www.cordbank.co.nz or call us on 0800 CORDBANK and we will post the enrolment forms out to you.

You will receive your CordBank collection kit within three days. It includes all the sterile items your LMC needs for your baby’s cord blood to be collected.

The cord blood collection is taken after the baby is born – in fact the baby is usually enjoying skin to skin contact with mum while the cord blood is collected.

Collecting cord blood is quick and easy, but if your midwife is unsure of how to do the collect, we have a Midwifery Advisor who can talk through the collection procedure with them. Please call Customer Service on 0800 267 322 or email us at info@cordbank.co.nz if you’d like the contact details for the Advisor.

Yes. We recommend that each baby has its cord blood collected and stored for future medical use.  Just as each child is genetically unique, so is that child’s cord blood stem cell sample. Parents save cord blood for each of their children to ensure that an exact DNA genetic match is available.

No. Cord blood is normally discarded with the umbilical cord after it is cut.

When you ask to have your baby’s cord blood collected, the one and only change from the normal procedure is that after birth, after the cord is cut, the baby´s cord blood is collected rather than thrown away.

Collections can take place even after the placenta has been delivered.

You can have the labour in the water, but you would need to get out of the water once fully dilated in order to give birth and then have the cord cut and clamped.

There are a number of reasons for this. One is the chance of contamination from the water. Another is that the cord blood is collected using a gravity bag method so you need to be laid down, in order to facilitate the collection of the cord blood.

CordBank typically clamps and cuts the umbilical cord immediately after birth and before the placenta is delivered, in order to collect as much cord blood as possible.

It will be stored in our purpose-built state-of-the-art long-term storage facility. Our facility and freezer systems are fully alarmed and secure. CordBank is the only licensed private facility in New Zealand.

Yes, the cells should be kept at room temperature. Not surprisingly, stem cells like body temperature. Never refrigerate the kit, expose it to freezing temperatures or extreme heat like in a closed vehicle or car boot.

We ask you to call our designated courier within 90 minutes of the baby being born, that way we can ensure that the transport arrangements are under way as soon as possible.

To ensure the best cell viability we process the cord blood stem cells within 32 hours of your baby’s delivery.

The New York State Health Department Guidelines for cord blood banking state that umbilical stem cells can be stored indefinitely under liquid nitrogen. The policy states, “There is no evidence at present that cells stored at -196°C in an undisturbed manner lose either in-vitro determined viability or biologic activity. Therefore, at the current time, no expiration date need be assigned to cord blood stored continuously under liquid nitrogen.”

Current data reflects that cord blood cells that have been stored for fifteen years have the same composition as they did at the time of storage. (3) All science involving cryogenic storage of cells also indicates that the cells should remain viable indefinitely.

3. Kobylka, P. Preservation of Immunological and Colony-Forming Capacities of Long-Term (15 years) Cryopreserved Cord Blood Stem Cells. Transplantation. 1998;65(9):1275-1278.

They are recognised as having distinct advantages compared to other sources of stem cells because they are younger, more adaptable and have limited exposure to viruses and other environmental factors that can alter cell function

Cord blood can be stored indefinitely. However when the child turns 18, they are legally regarded as an adult and therefore need to take over the contract for storage in their own name.

Please email us at info@cordbank.co.nz to discuss collection and transportation of your baby’s cord blood. We would be pleased to provide our service to parents internationally including Australia, Asia, the United States and Europe.

If the collection doesn’t go ahead for any reason, you will be refunded all but your initial collection kit payment.