Cord Blood Banking
Until the late nineteen seventies umbilical cord blood was discarded after child birth as the significance and usage of the blood was not known to the medical community. Collection and storage of cord blood which is derived through syringing the blood through the umbilical cord after delivery of the baby and detachment of the cord.
The cord blood contains stem cells, which has proved to be beneficial in achieving breakthrough medical technology and treatment. It has been successfully proved that stem cells can not only help cure chronic disease like cancer, diabetes, heart damage, haematopoiesis, baldness, infertility, hearing and vision impairments but also cultivate missing teeth, orthopaedic treatments, neural disorders and many more.
Many can and do decide to either donate or store the cord blood with the help of cord blood banking. Like normal blood banks there are cord blood banks that specialise in storing, preserving and testing the cord blood stem cells. It may be a good idea to store the cord blood as it may help to treat any kind of disorder that the child may encounter in the future. There are two types of blood banks that store the blood, Private and Public blood banks.
If one chooses to store the umbilical cord blood in a public blood bank then there are few facts that are to be known and considered; first of all the blood is accepted as a donation to be used for anyone in need; secondly the public blood bank stores the blood without the details of the source, that means that if in the future the cord blood is needed for any kind of treatment then it would be impossible to retrieve it. In the Private Banks, however, not only keep the owner information, for a fee they store the harvested cord blood as the family’s health insurance.
