Collection of Cord Blood in the Delivery Room

The process of collecting your baby’s cord blood is safe, painless and poses no risk to the mother and baby. It does not interfere with your birth experience or your birth plan.

When the mother goes into labour in the delivery room, her blood is collected primarily for screening of infectious diseases. After the baby is delivered, the Ob/Gyn and/or trained delivery room staff will collect the cord blood, and this will take a few minutes. Mothers can focius fully on delivering and welcoming their newborn baby throughout the process.

Step 1

After the baby is delivered, the umbilical cord is clamped and cut.

Step 2

While waiting for the placenta to be delivered, the residual umbilical cord blood is collected from the umbilical vein. This step takes a few minutes.

Step 3

Cord blood collection is completed before the placenta is expelled.

Processing of Collected Cord Blood in the Processing Laboratory

Processing of cord blood involves the following steps:

Step 1: Evaluation

Each bag of collected cord blood received at the Processing Laboratory is assessed for blood volume and number of Total Nucleated Cells (TNC). Typically, cord blood is processed within 48 hours of collection.

Step 2: Stem Cell Recovery

Cord blood is processed to maximise the recovery of haematopoietic (blood-forming) stem cells. This is achieved through centrifugation and separation of blood components using automated blood separator.

Step 3: Final Product

At the end of processing, the final product is an approximately 25ml bag of nucleated cell concentration, known as Cord Blood Unit (CBU).

Blood Component Separator

The Blood Component Seperator is an automated system designed to facilitate the separation of whole, centrifuged blood into its various blood components. It is versatile, capable of working with different types of single-use blood bags and processing kits. Importantly, it allows for the programming of cord blood banking protocols into the equipment, ensuring efficient and standardised processing.

Cord Blood Storage

After the cord blood has been processed, concentrated white blood cells are transferred to a freezing bag with cryo-protectant. The following steps will follow through:

Step 1

The final processed cord blood is frozen in a control rate freezer. Gradual freezing maintains the quality of stem cells and prevents damage, thus maintaining cell viability and cell potency.

Step 2

Once the CBU has reached the optimum temperature of below -150°C, it is transferred into a cryopreservation tank for long term storage. Temperature in the storage tank is maintained at less than -150°C and is continuously monitored via an alarm system. This ensures that the CBUs in SCBB are closely monitored and comply with local regulations and international quality standards.