Minutes after a child’s birth and after the umbilical cord is cut, the placenta and its attached portion of the cord (the afterbirth) are delivered. The New York Blood Center's National Cord Blood Program staff take the placenta to an adjacent laboratory where they collect the cord blood into a sterile plastic bag, like those used for blood transfusion. Because we collect cord blood from the delivered placenta, there is no risk to mother or child. An NCBP nurse then explains all aspects of the Program to the mother and requests her consent to donate the cord blood, as required by the NCBP FDA IND exemption and research protocol. Donation of blood from a single placenta becomes a single cord unit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cord_blood
