Every healthy pregnant woman having no infectious disease (such as HIV and hepatitis) and no genetic disease (such as haemophilia or autoimmune diseases) can decide to donate umbilical cord blood for public purposes. Furthermore, the biological father of the child must not have any genetic disease running in his family as well. It is best to registry at around 32 weeks of pregnancy.
Since the transplant of haematopoietic stem cells from cord blood can transmit certain diseases to the recipient, a pregnant woman is required to complete a questionnaire before donating cord blood that reveals the risk for the transmission of an infection containing dangerous micro-organisms and certain genetic diseases. At the same time, the blood of a pregnant woman is tested for the presence of disease agents that can be transmitted by blood (hepatitis B and C viruses, HIV, CMV and syphilis).
The entire procedure is confidential, along with all the data acquired. By making a statement, a pregnant woman renounces the ownership of her umbilical cord blood, which becomes anonymous and the property of the cord blood registry, which makes it available to any patient in the global network of registrys, a member of which is also Slovenia. By analogy, any patient in Slovenia can expect to receive a graft from the same global registry in case he or she falls ill.
Parents must be aware that it is highly unlikely (only 25 to 30% probability) that their child, who has donated cord blood to the public bank, will receive the same blood if he or she falls ill.
