Cord Blood Program

About This Program
Expectant families in Washington, Oregon and Hawaii have an opportunity to potentially save the lives of patients worldwide, thanks to the Cord Blood Program at Puget Sound Blood Center in Seattle. Assisted by local nurses, midwives, and doctors, the Cord Blood Program collects, processes, stores and distributes blood collected from the umbilical cord for patients needing a stem cell transplant.

Puget Sound Blood Center's Cord Blood Program is the first and the only cord blood bank in the Northwest. Stem cells collected by the Cord Blood Program are made available to patients worldwide. In addition to treating leukemia, stem cells can be used to help patients with anemias, Hodgkin's lymphoma, immune deficiency disorders, bone marrow failure states and many other life-threatening diseases.

Collection of the cord blood is a completely painless procedure that does not interfere with the birth or with mother-and-child bonding following the delivery. There is no risk either to the mother or baby and cord blood collection rarely requires Blood Center staff to be present during the baby's delivery.

Participating hospitals include Swedish Medical Center (in Ballard and on First Hill), Overlake Hospital Medical Center, Evergreen Hospital, Madigan Army Medical Center, Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital and University of Washington Medical Center. We are also working with Oregon Health and Sciences University in Portland. In Hawaii, participating sites are Kapi'olani, Tripler, Queen's, Castle and Kaiser Permanente Medical Centers. Both Swedish Medical Center and Kapi'olani are the largest birthing centers in their regions. Collaboration between the Cord Blood Program and the Hawaii Cord Blood Bank make possible the collection of cord blood in Hawaii for processing and storage locally. The large proportion of Asian/Pacific Islander donors in Hawaii help provide an ethnically diverse bank of cord blood, giving a wider variety of patients a better chance of finding a transplant match.