Ottawa mother raising awareness on importance of donating umbilical cord blood

Highlighting Cord Blood Awareness Month Cord blood is the blood left in the umbilical cord after birth. It contains stem cells, and it's used to save lives.

An Ottawa mother is raising awareness on the benefits of donating her baby’s umbilical cord blood to the Canadian Blood Services after she was born in May.

"Knowing that my baby is doing a good deed on their first day of life could only set her up for a great future," said new mother Chanele Cyr-Depauw.

It’s a decision Cyr-Depauw and her husband made before baby Ayla was born.

Cord blood is the blood that remains in the placenta and umbilical cord after the birth of a baby.

The cord blood is rich in stem cells and is used to treat more than 80 diseases and disorders including cancer, blood disease and immune system disorders. Currently, there are more than 1,000 patients across Canada waiting for a stem cell transplant. If the cord is not donated, it is discarded.

"Just knowing the fact that the umbilical cord is discarded, I just feel that why throw it in the trash when you can save people’s lives," she said.

"They’re actually very immature stem cells so they can be used to treat a lot of people. Most often cord blood is used to treat children under the age of 12 and more often under the age of four, just because the volume is so small," said Jan Grant with the Canadian Blood Services.

The Ottawa Hospital is one of four donation sites in the country for cord blood. While some choose to collect and bank it privately, less than one per cent of people actually use it for themselves, according to Health Canada.

"It’s very important to be able to collect the stem cells so we can add them to the stem cell registry so that patients in Canada and around the world have access to them, but it really is one’s personal choice," said Grant.

Cyr-Depauw said the entire process was simple. She registered online and the collection was done after delivery. A small, but life-saving decision for her tiny hero.

“To be able to help other people, like why not do it? It was a no brainer,” she said.

The Canadian Blood Services says donors must be in good health, over the age of 18 and be pregnant with only one baby and are expected to deliver no earlier than 34 weeks in gestation.