JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Cord blood banking can be expensive.
It's when you save the blood from the umbilical cord and placenta of your baby for future use to help treat your child if they one day have a medical need.
A new partnership between Lifesouth and UF Health Jacksonville is making it more accessible by opening a public cord blood banking program.
It allows moms who give birth at UF Health Jacksonville to decide to donate their cord blood to save other lives.
Lifesouth has been running public cord blood banks since the late 90s, but this partnership is new.
Why would moms donate their cord blood?
"This is typically discarded as medical waste," said Luis Hernandez with Lifesouth. "We can take that and actually process it and if it meets eligibility, it could be used to help somebody
Hernandez is the Director of Cellular Therapies. He says blood from umbilical cords is naïve because it comes from a baby. Therefore it matches to more people.
Hernandez says it can treat more than 80 diseases including to different types of cancer. It is also a rich in stem cells.
He explains with Jacksonville's diverse population, this is going to help Lifesouth diversify their supply and ultimately help minority patients find a blood match.
"If you are a Caucasian looking for a match, you have a 70+ percent chance of finding a match versus if you are a minority that can go down all the way to the teens," Hernandez says. "So this is absolutely a big deal."
If you give birth at UF Health Jacksonville, you can tell your doctor if you want to make that donation.