Considerations for Cord Blood Storage
January 9, 2008 – 5:23 pmWhy store umbilical cord blood?
The birth of your baby is a one-time event which can be used to help your family, or society, in a very unique way. Parents have the option of either storing their umbilical cord blood with a private cord blood bank or donating it to a public bank for possible use in transplants or stem cell research.
For transplant patients, there are three main sources of stem cells: umbilical cord blood, bone marrow and from circulating blood itself. Of these three, umbilical cord blood is the only source that can be harvested at a single point in time, after birth.
Research reveals that it can be easier to match transplant patients with cord blood than trying to create the perfect match required for adult stem cells. Therefore, public cord blood banks that have the capacity to store a large number of donations help contribute to saving lives by providing the various samples needed for treatment.
Similarly, by storing your baby’s cord blood privately, it can be used for treatment of your child, or another family member, in the future. It has been proven that transplant patients who receive stem cell treatment from a close relative can recover from the procedure more quickly, as compared to receiving a donation from a non-relative. Technology is continually advancing in the realm of science and medicine, therefore, it is hopeful that individuals who store their cord blood now may benefit from future scientific breakthroughs as treatments for currently non-treatable conditions arise.
Parents who opt to store their cord blood today may see ample benefits for their child or another family member in the future. There is relatively no risk to the mother or baby from harvesting the umbilical cord blood, and the only precaution to be taken by doctors is that the umbilical cord should not be clamped too immediately after birth.
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