What is cord blood banking? Cord blood banking is the process of collecting the blood that is located in the umbilical cord at the time of childbirth. Some people opt to store this blood in case a child should need it for health or emergency reasons. This whole procedure has been used for many years and more and more people are becoming aware of it and the reasons to plan for this.
The process of cord blood banking can also be done as a donation to a local blood bank. The blood cells that an individual donates to a public blood bank has the potential to save a life. The actual process of collecting the umbilical blood does not hurt the newborn or the mother in any ways. This painless procedure could literally be giving the gift of life to someone so it is well worth consideration.
Stem cells are located within this vital cord blood and it is what makes the collection of this blood so important. For people that are fighting various diseases, these stem cells can become viable within an unhealthy body that lacks these healthy cells.
In regards to cancer or other health conditions that have destroyed these vital blood cells, some physicians consider this type of blood donation to be critical for the human body of someone with disease. For a child who is diagnosed with leukemia, the use of family related cord blood as opposed to a bone marrow transplant from a nonrelative can make the difference between life and death in some cases.
There are a few different methods of storage when it comes to cord blood banking. The first service would be through a private cord blood bank and the person banking the blood would pay a fee which is typically an annual cost. When the infant is born, the blood is retrieved from the unbilical cord and turned over to this private blood bank. This privately banked blood would then only be given to a family member of the donated blood for medical needs as opposed to being made available to the general public as a donation.
If you don’t feel the need to store the cord blood for your own family or at a private facility, you still might consider donating to a blood bank that is open to the public. This blood goes into a cord blood registry and if someone needs it for a bone marrow transplant they’d be able to move up the registry to potentially use the blood that you’ve donated to same their life. Thousands of children every year are helped due to cord blood donation and your gift could save a life.
The odds that you may actually need to use banked cord blood is pretty great but if you think about the possibility especially when it comes to one of your children, you may want to seriously consider cord blood banking as an option.
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