title: Maternal understanding of commercial cord blood storage for their offspring - a survey among pregnant women in Hong Kong.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the knowledge on commercial cord blood banking (CCBB) among pregnant women.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional survey. Setting. Antenatal clinics of two major public maternity units in Hong Kong.
  
  
  METHODS
  Pregnant women.
  
  
  METHODS
  Self-administered questionnaire.
  
  
  METHODS
  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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, Hong Kong, PRC. shsuen@cuhk.edu.hk
authors.forename: Stephen Sik Hung
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Suen
authors.forename: Terence T
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Lao
authors.forename: Oi Ka
authors.initials: OK
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Thomas Kam On
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Kou
authors.forename: Sammy Chung Sum
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Jean Hee
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Tze Kin
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.forename: Tak Yeung
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Leung
mesh_terms: D001771:Blood Banks; D032882:Comprehension; D036101:Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplantation; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D005312:Fetal Blood; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D011247:Pregnancy; D037841:Pregnant People; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires