A Look At Cord Blood And Stem Cells

Cord blood offers a near magical cure for a number of life threatening diseases and conditions. Cord blood research is producing new breakthroughs nearly everyday. It has already changed the lives of many who have benefited from these techniques.

Let’s look at some basic cord blood issues.

Stem cells have long been known to produce cures that can sometimes be described as miraculous. These cells have the ability to grow into any other form of cell and help the body regenerate and repair itself. Umbilical cord blood, which is collected from the placenta of a baby soon after birth, is one of the richest sources of stem cells possibly found. Unlike the traditional bone marrow transplant that is an invasive and painful procedure, the collection of stem cells is painless and safe, and has no possibility of harming the baby.

For centuries, midwives have been throwing away the placenta after a birth. Today, we know that the umbilical cord blood is the richest source of stem cells we can possibly get.

New Techniques

Techniques are now available to harvest umbilical cord blood and store it. It is frozen under hygienic conditions so it can be used to help the body recover from disease or life threatening conditions many years later. It is not just the baby who can benefit from this stored cord blood. The baby's parents, relatives, and even total strangers can use cord blood.

The stem cells in a baby's cord blood are immature and they are unable to react and cause the rejection that is otherwise so common with transplants.

A number of cord blood banks or cord blood registries have been set up both in public and private domains for umbilical stem cell storage. Typically, parents are informed of these choices when they go in for ante-natal counseling. Parents can choose to either allow the umbilical cord blood to be saved and stored in a private cord blood bank for their future family use, they can donate it to a public bank or to a person who needs it for a cure, or simply get it disposed off along with the placenta. When donated at public cord blood banks for public use, there are no attached costs of cord blood banking. Cord blood preservation for personal use will obviously mean handling and storage charges.

While the individual probability of your needing a cord blood transplant is low, the list of diseases that can be tackled with these methods is growing rapidly. Many parents know or sincerely believe that the future could bring exciting new discoveries in cord blood research that may totally change the outcomes of major diseases like leukemia, cancer, and heart disease. Storing cord blood or cord blood donation is a guaranteed way to be ready for these discoveries.