Cord blood donations encouraged Greene woman finds helpful stem cell bank

GREENE – Michelle DeBlois, who believes in the disease-curing possibilities of stem cells, was looking for a way for expectant mothers in Maine to effortlessly donate blood from their babies’ umbilical cords to a public donation bank.

The project she began months ago didn’t work out as she had hoped. Her research, however, turned up a stem cell donation bank that is willing to accept cord blood from people in Maine.

Parents will be responsible for doing the paperwork and sending for the supplies needed to collect the blood. But DeBlois said CryoBanks International in Altamonte Springs, Fla., was willing to pay for shipping, testing and storing of the samples.

“I’m disappointed that we couldn’t set up a statewide program,” DeBlois said. “But the good thing is I found an organization that is committed to saving this blood and is willing to take it from any mother in Maine.”

Blood that remains in a baby’s umbilical cord after it is cut is a rich source of stem cells, much like blood taken from bone marrow and embryos.

Extracted from the cord with a syringe minutes after birth, these cells can be frozen and stored for years. Many scientists believe they will one day enable the repair and regeneration of tissue riddled with cancer and other diseases.

Even though it is easier to extract than bone marrow and doesn’t spur the ethical concerns related to embryonic cells, most cord blood in Maine ends up in the trash. While pregnant with her second child, DeBlois, 30, of Greene set out to change that.

Her original goal was to establish a partnership between an out-of-state public donation bank and every hospital in Maine as part of a program in which parents would be relieved of all responsibilities. All they would do is decide to donate their cord blood, and the hospital and public bank would take care of the rest.

DeBlois contacted the dozen or so public banks in the United States. Dissuaded by costs and the fairly low number of births here, they turned her down.

“It could cost $5 million to set up a program like this, and there are only 1,700 births in Maine a year,” DeBlois said. “You can get that in one hospital in California.”

Currently, most doctors in Maine give women the choice of saving the blood. But since the state does not have a public donation program, most mothers who opt to do so pay for it to be stored in a private bank.

Then, if anyone in their family needs a transplant, they can have the sample tested for a match. Most private banks charge annual storage fees between $45 and $95 to keep the blood frozen.