Expectant Mothers
Donate your Amniotic Membrane and Umbilical Cord
How the birth of your baby can help others.
What is amniotic membrane and umbilical cord?
Amniotic membrane is the thin membrane located on the internal wall of the placenta. The umbilical cord is the strand of tissue connecting the baby to the placenta. Normally both are discarded along with the placenta following the birth of your baby. But if donated, they can be used to help others.
What can they be used for?
- The membrane can be used as a replacement for damaged corneas to help improve and even restore sight for people with eye disease or injury
- The membrane can also be used to grow donated stem cells which can be used in sight saving ophthalmological procedures
- Blood vessels from the umbilical cord can be used in surgery to replace a patients own blood vessels, improving circulation and in some cases, preventing amputation.
As well as being used for transplant, they are also needed for ethically approved medical research, which may benefit many patients. They can also be used in tissue engineering projects, which aim to produce replacement implants for many different types of tissue including skin, heart valve components, tendons, bladder patches and blood vessels.
Who can donate amniotic membrane and umbilical cord?
Amniotic membrane and umbilical cord can be donated only after the safe delivery of your baby by elective caesarean section. If you are happy to donate, the whole placenta and umbilical cord will be taken and any tissue not required would be discarded.
Unfortunately, not everyone can donate.
Please consider the following carefully and if you have ever suffered with any of these conditions please do not offer to donate:
- Cancer
- Parkinson’s disease
- Multiple sclerosis
- Inflammatory bowel disease
- Syphilis
You are also unable to donate if you have received:
- A blood transfusion since 1980
- A tissue/organ transplant
If you have had any other serious disease, please discuss this with the Tissue Donation Nurse Practitioner.
Please do not offer to donate if you the mother of the child:
- Are HIV positive
- Know you carry the hepatitis B or C virus
- Have EVER had sex with a bisexual or homosexual man
- Have EVER received money or drugs for sex
- Have EVER injected or been injected with non prescription drugs, even if a long time ago or only once. This includes bodybuilding drugs.
Please do not offer to donate if you (the mother of the child) have had sex in the last 12 months with a man who:
- Is HIV
- Has ever been given money or drugs for sex
- Has ever injected drugs
- Has ever had oral or anal sex with another man with or without a condom.
What happens now?
Donation is entirely voluntary and will not interfere with the delivery of your baby. If you wish to donate, a trained Tissue Donation Nurse Practitioner or Health Care Professional will ask you the following:
- Some questions about your medical history
- To read and sign the consent form
- To provide a blood sample
No blood is ever needed from your baby.
Your blood sample will then be tested for HIV, hepatitis B and C, HTLV and syphilis, and in the unlikely event of any positive results, you will be told and given further advice by one of our doctors. If your donation is to be used for clinical transplantation, we may need you to have a second blood sample taken approximately six months after the delivery of your baby. We will contact you nearer the time to make suitable arrangements. For medical or other reasons it sometimes may not be possible to accept your donation.
Data Protection
If you donate, your name, address and date of birth will be held on our database, along with the test results relating to your donation. All information and data processed by us is in accordance with the 1998 Data Protection Act. If you would like a leaflet about our obligations under this Act, please ask the trained Tissue Donation Nurse Practitioner or Health Care Professional.
Further information
For further information please feel free to contact a Trained Tissue Donation Nurse Practitioner or Health Care Professional.
NHS Blood and Transplant
Deansbrook Road,
Edgware, Middlesex HA8 9BD
Tel: 020 8437 1728