Umbilical cord blood

Collection of cord blood at birth will be regulated for the first time in the UK under new rules announced by the Human Tissue Authority (HTA) to ensure safety and traceability.

The trend of collecting cord blood in public or private banks for potential medical applications, including the treatment of leukaemia, has grown more popular in recent years. The new rules, announced today, will mean that from 5 July 2008 cord blood can only be collected by people with specialist training and on premises that meet essential standards.

All maternity units that collect cord blood will need to act under a Human Tissue Authority (HTA) licence that will ensure:

• Staff have training in collecting cord blood, raising standards and making sure that best possible quality of sample is taken.
• Procedures which will help prevent any medical attention being drawn away from mother or child during collection.
• A system is in place to make sure that the cord blood cells are traceable from collection to their use in treatments.