After a few minutes of giving birth, umbilical cord blood is collected and sent to central storage of cord blood to be cryogenically frozen. Later down the years, this umbilical cord could be used to cure some rare diseases.
In the past, the only alternative for someone who desired for cord blood banking Canada was to save in one of the nine private cord blood banks and that too at a certain price. These private organisations allow the compilation and storage of umbilical cord blood units for the restricted use of donors and families.
As of September 2013, some Canadians have a second choice to donate umbilical cord blood to the public umbilical cord blood bank, a bank managed by Canadian Blood Services that store umbilical cord blood, a public database, and is available to any suitable patient domestically or abroad, which requires a stem cell transplantation. Once anyone donates their umbilical cord blood to the public bank, the donor loses the ownership rights of its use. If it is compatible with another person, they will not be able to access it if they need it in the future.
While Canada now has an alternative to store the cord blood either in public or private banks, there are still many gaps.
Public cord blood banking Canada
Before the opening of the Cord Blood Public Bank's first collection centre in Ottawa, Canadians mainly relied on stem cells from cord blood and bone marrow banks in the United States, Europe or Australia, but did not contribute to this international group of nearly 18 million donors. National umbilical cord blood bank was announced in March 2011 with the mission to increase Canadian capacity for the collection, storage and research of umbilical cord blood. The umbilical cord blood of the Canadian Bank will also be available to the international community through a registration system.
Private or ‘family banks.’
Canada has nine family or private banks that allow the gathering and storage of umbilical cord blood for the select use of patients and their families. The charges for the initial extraction and evaluation of cord blood are about $1,000, and for storage, it costs about $100 per year.