Save the Future with Cord Blood
Posted in Health on January 24th, 2012 by adminOnly until recently, parents or mothers more specifically do not care much about umbilical cords after the baby’s out of the womb. Though cutting or severing one of the biggest connections between a mother and an infant is still a great milestone in itself, a piece of blood has stolen its thunder. Mothers and parents now have the option of saving pieces of the umbilical cord and the placenta which are called cord blood even after birth. To be more precise about cord blood, here is what the National Cord Blood Program has to say about this riveting discovery:
After a baby is born and the umbilical cord is cut, some blood remains in the blood vessels of the placenta and the portion of the umbilical cord that remains attached to it. After birth, the baby no longer needs this extra blood. This blood is called placental blood or umbilical cord blood: “cord blood” for short.
Cord blood contains all the normal elements of blood – red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and plasma. But it is also rich in hematopoietic (blood-forming) stem cells, similar to those found in bone marrow. This is why cord blood can be used for transplantation as an alternative to bone marrow.
Cord blood is being used increasingly on an experimental basis as a source of stem cells, as an alternative to bone marrow. Most cord blood transplants have been performed in patients with blood and immune system diseases. Cord Blood transplants have also been performed for patients with genetic or metabolic diseases. More than 80 different diseases have been treated to date with unrelated cord blood transplants.
Cord blood stem cells are truly one of the most life changing discoveries in the field of medicine. It also affirms how magical and wonderful the process of giving birth is. One important thing to take note of though is that medical technicians should be extremely careful and precise in obtaining cord blood samples from newborn infants for these can only be extracted once. The process of collecting and storing cord blood is very simple but needs utmost attention and care. After the extraction, there are two ways of storing these cord blood samples that parents can choose from. One is through public cord blood banks and another is through private cord blood banking. Cord blood banks are where cord blood samples are being stored and kept and can only is accessible to the donor or the donor’s immediate family and relatives.


