Umbilical cord blood donations made to public cord blood banks can be stored and used to provide life-saving treatments for people diagnosed with life-threatening diseases. Held to specific regulations and specifications, public cord blood banks are nonprofit entities, and public cord blood banking typically occurs at no cost to the donor’s family. Unfortunately, fewer than 5% of parents donate or bank their child’s cord blood.1 One of the barriers to higher donation rates is the limited number of public cord banks with designated collection centers in the United States.
“Public cord blood banking programs are money losing—or maybe, if you are lucky, cost neutral at best,” said Joanne Kurtzberg, MD, director of Carolinas Cord Blood Bank.
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February 2026
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