photo credit: rkimpeljr

A cord blood bank is a facility which stores umbilical cord blood for future use. Both private and public cord blood banks have developed since the mid to late 1990s in response to the potential for cord blood transplants in treating diseases of the blood and immune systems. However, cord blood is not recommended to be stored in a private bank for the vast majority of cases.

Your cord blood is the best gift you can give your baby after she is born. Not convinced. Here are some advantages of saving of umbilical blood for your baby.

Your extracting cord blood for your baby is not painful for you and your baby.

Your placenta and the umbilical cord would have been discarded anyway. Why not use it for the welfare of your baby and its siblings.

There are many diseases like cancer which can be treated with the help of the patients stem cells.

Bone marrow can supply stem cells too. However, the quality and quantity is a lot better in the umbilical cord.

If a person has his own stem cells, he does not have to depend on others for donation. He is his own donor.

There can be a situation where the donors stem cells do not match that of the patients. As a result, treatment will be delayed leading to dire consequences. This could have been avoided if the patients parents had decided to preserve his cord blood after he was born.

Preserving your babys cord blood will not only help your baby but also her siblings whose blood you have not saved. Various researches has proved that the stem cells from a sibling is more beneficial than other familys stem cells.

You can look at it as insurance for your family. At the time of need this blood storage may prove to be life savior of your family member.

Incase, you see that your child is growing up healthy and there is no problem in the next few years, you can chose to donate the umbilical cord blood to a needy family.

Diseases Which Can Be Cured With Cord blood

Here is a list of some of the diseases that can be treated with the help of your babys umbilical cord blood:

• Acute Leukemias
• Chronic Leukemias
• Myelodysplastic Syndromes
• Stem Cell Disorders
• Myeloproliferative Disorders
• Lymphoproliferative Disorders
• Phagocyte Disorders
• Liposomal Storage Diseases
• Histiocytic Disorders
• Inherited Erythrocyte Abnormalities
• Congenital (Inherited) Immune System Disorders
• Other Inherited Disorders
• Inherited Platelet Abnormalities,
• Plasma Cell Disorders
• Autoimmune Diseases
• Brain Tumors
• Ewing Sarcoma
• Neuroblastoma
• Ovarian Cancer
• Renal Cell Carcinoma
• Small-Cell Lung Cancer
• Testicular Cancer.

Cord blood banking may sound expensive now, but if you look that benefits you and your family might be getting out of it, the expense looks quite miniscule. So, think again. You love your baby very much and will always try to do everything possible to ensure that she is healthy and happy. Save her umbilical cord blood. Save the very cells that created her. Give her a gift she will always remember her own stem cells. They can give her a new life.

If you're new here, please subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!