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

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.