Zwangere vrouwen en navelstrengbloedbanken: Hoe denken ze erover?

Knowledge and attitude of pregnant women regarding public as well as private umbilical cord blood banking are important factors for their motivation to donate umbilical cord blood. Certain previous studies indicate that pregnant women have a poor understanding of umbilical blood donation and banking, in spite of the media attention. To measure knowledge and attitude, anonymous questionnaires were distributed among Flemish women during prenatal courses organized at UZ Gent and AZ Sint-Lucas, Gent. A total number of 280 (56%) pregnant women returned their completed questionnaire. Most of the women do not prefer to keep their baby's cord blood stored in a private umbilical cord blood bank, mainly due to the high costs. Pregnant women who choose for storage of the umbilical cord blood in a public bank mainly do this for altruistic reasons. A poor to very poor knowledge of donation and of umbilical cord blood storage was reported. A majority would like to be informed between week 27 and 40 of pregnancy, most likely by their gynaecologist or during prenatal visits. Since this research is centre-based, follow-up studies are necessary in order to be able to generalize the data to the whole population and accordingly to steer the policy, the procedures and the spreading of information.