Maternal understanding of commercial cord blood storage for their offspring - a survey among pregnant women in Hong Kong

Abstract

Objective: To assess the knowledge on commercial cord blood banking (CCBB) among pregnant women.

Design: Cross-sectional survey. Setting. Antenatal clinics of two major public maternity units in Hong Kong.

Population: Pregnant women.

Methods: Self-administered questionnaire.

Main outcome measures: The survey explored knowledge about the use of self-stored umbilical cord blood (UCB) stem cells and attitude towards CCBB.

Results: Of the 2,000 women recruited, 1 866 (93.3%) completed the questionnaire. The majority (78.2%) had no idea that there was the chance of using self-stored stem cells. Moreover, most of the respondents were unclear about which diseases other than leukemia are amenable to treatment with UCB stem cells in general. Only 20.3% of women knew that stem cells are available from the Red Cross in case their children need hematopoietic cell transplantation.

Conclusions: The results of this study revealed inadequate knowledge on UCB stem cell banking and its applications among most of our pregnant women. The government and clinicians should combine efforts to provide accurate information on utilization of UCB stem cells during antenatal care.