This week North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue signed a law that requires the state’s Department of Health and Human Services to provide free education about cord blood stem cells and the options for preserving them to parents and physicians. Sponsored by Representative Margaret Dickson, this law also encourages physicians to make the information available to expectant parents early enough in pregnancy so that the parents can make an informed decision about whether to participate in a public or private cord blood banking program.

North Carolina is the 22nd state to institute legislation about cord blood education, guided by recommendations first issued by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 2004.  In a comprehensive report to Congress analyzing the issues involved with creating a national banking program, the IOM included two key recommendations highlighting the need for healthcare providers to help all expectant parents make an informed choice about the storage or disposal of their newborn's cord blood stem cells and to provide education on all cord blood banking options prior to labor and delivery:

• Recommendation 5.2:  Informed Consent Should be Obtained Prior to Labor and Delivery.  Informed consent for the collection, storage and use of cord blood should be obtained before labor and delivery, and after the adequate disclosure of information.
• Recommendation 5.3:  Donors Must Be Provided with Clear Information about their Options.  The information provided to a donor must include a balanced perspective on the different options for banking (family banking or public donation). The information disclosed for donation should not include language that gives the impression that the unit will be available to the family after donation.                                                                                      

The importance of the IOM study in shaping health policy on cord blood banking was highlighted in a U.S. Senate Committee Report that accompanied The Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005, creating the national cord blood banking program:

“The committee strongly supports the IOM report recommendation that women be provided with a balanced perspective and clear information in order to participate, actively and knowledgably, in the choice of whether or how to donate cord blood. Informed consent is likely to include, at least, consideration of the following options: public donation or private storage; and disposal.”

Thanks to the work of the Institute of Medicine, federal and state health policy on cord blood is changing. With the passage of the North Carolina law, nearly 75 percent of the U.S. population now benefits from state-endorsed education on cord blood stem cells.