7 Reasons to Consider Cord Blood Banking
Introduction Cord blood banking is a process that is growing in popularity all across North America and in other parts of the world. Basically, when a baby is born the parents can choose to have the blood extracted from the umbilical cord and banked for future use. The stem cells from the cord blood are kept at a cord blood bank in case the baby needs them at some point in his or her life. In some cases, the blood is kept at a public cord blood bank and the stem cells may be used to help strangers. Here are 7 solid reasons to consider banking your baby’s cord blood.
1. Easy Collection Process The collection of a baby’s umbilical cord blood is quick and more importantly it is painless. He won’t feel it any more than he feels the cord being cut. Essentially, a needle is inserted into the cord after he is born, and the blood is drawn just as it would be from any other spot on the body.
2. May Help with Future Problems If your child is one of the unlucky few who develop a bone marrow disease later in life, the stem cells you’ve kept in the cord blood bank may be able to help the situation considerably. Some of the possibilities include: • • • •
Leukemia Krabbe’s disease Sickle cell anemia Bone marrow failure from chemotherapy
3. It Can Produce All the Cells Stem cells derived from cord blood have the capacity to produce all of the different types of cells in the body. This means that blood you have taken and stored in the cord blood bank isn’t really restricted to just one part of the body or one specific types of disease or ailment.
4. Technology Continues to Grow Way back in 1980, medical researchers first noticed that there were similarities between umbilical cord blood and bone marrow. By 1988, the first successful transplant using cord blood was performed in France. By 1992, New York opened up the first public cord blood bank, and by 1995 the first family cord blood bank was opened. Technology in this area has grown quickly and will continue to grow, and if you have the stem cells saved and at the ready, you can benefit from every new discovery as it emerges.
5. May Save a Stranger If you aren’t interested or don’t have the means to keep your baby’s cord blood in a private cord blood bank, don’t let it go to waste. By having it extracted and kept in a public bank, you may end up giving a total stranger a second chance someday. With all of the known qualities of cord blood, and all of the new ones that continue to come along, you can really provide a public service with this quick and painless procedure.
6. Once It’s Gone, It’s Gone This is where the logical aspect comes in. If you don’t decide to have your baby’s cord blood extracted and saved, it will just be thrown away. Meaning, you can’t get it back in a week or a month or a year if you decide that keeping it would have been the wise choice. The only way that you’ll know if it can help you or someone else in the future is by having it extracted and keeping it now.
7. No Moral Dilemma • Unlike the moral issues that some people experience with embryonic stem cells, cord blood stem cells don’t seem to have the same problems. Since the cells are being extracted from tissue that has already served its purpose and is going to be thrown out anyway, the benefits far outweigh most moral objections that come along.
References
http://www.cellsforlife.com/umbilical-cord-blood.html#targ Cells for Life – Umbilical Cord Blood Bank