Willingness of Pregnant Women in Benin City Nigeria to Donate Placenta Cord Blood for Stem Cell Transplantation

Stem Cell Transplantation has become an approved curative therapy for malignant and non-malignant disorders. Cord blood is a recommended source of Stem cell for Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT). However the method of collection, maternal and placenta factors have been shown to influence the quantity and quality of the cord blood. A total of 302 pregnant women, attending the Ante-Natal Clinic from June to August 2010 at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) were assessed for willingness to donate placenta cord blood for HSCT The results revealed that most of the women were mainly of age group 20-29yrs (53.2%), parity of 1 to 2 (59.6%), have tertiary education (57.6%) and were Christians (95.4%). However 212 (70.2%) of the pregnant women were willing to donate placenta cord blood. Reasons for those not willing to donate placenta cord blood were mainly that of fear of losing their child�s destiny (Placenta)with a figure of 20(22.2%), that it is a strange idea 16(17.8%), religious and traditional beliefs 14(15.6%)/8(8.9%) respectively. As part of the UBTH policy women routinely leave their placenta behind to be discarded by the hospital. Those who would prefer to take their placenta home were 32(10.6%) and 24(75%) of these women would rather bury their placenta in their compounds. The other 8(25%), would discard it in the dust bin. There is need to educate and reassure pregnant women in Nigeria to donate placenta cord blood, which hitherto is a biological waste. Cord blood in the future could be an important source of stem cells for HSCT for the purpose of initiating blood banking in Nigeria. Keywords: Placenta Cord Blood, Willingness to Donate, Stem Cell Transplantation. clas