If you donate cord blood you are not donating the mother’s blood, you are donating the baby’s blood that has been left behind in the umbilical cord after birth. Umbilical cord blood is full of stem cells, those little cells that has the science community going mad. Why? Stem cells are the basic building blocks of our bodies.
Stem cell technology is being trialled on people with spinal cord damage and various cancers such as leukemia. One day they hope to be able to take stem cells and grow new organs like a liver or heart. The best stem cells to use are those taken from a new born baby’s umbilical cord. This is why umbilical cord blood donations are important
Collecting cord blood is not an invasive process. Once a baby is born, the umbilical cord is removed and along with the placenta, disposed of as hospital waste. Rather than throwing the umbilical cord and the umbilical cord blood out, the umbilical cord blood can be removed using a syringe. The cord blood is then sent away where the cord blood stem cells are removed and stored until required.
You have two options for cord blood collection. You can donate the cord blood where it is stored and used for research or treatment. The most common treatment juvenile leukemia where it has a high success rate.
The second option is to have the cord blood stem cells ‘banked’ for possible future use by your family, and in particular, your baby. There is nothing purer than the baby’s own cord blood stem cells if he or she should become sick. Collection will cost around $2000 with an annual fee of around $100. If your child should ever become sick, this will be small price to pay to save their life.
Research is being undertaken to test stem cells and their ability to repair spinal problems and restore movement to para/quadriplegics. More than seventy diseases can be treated using stem cells many of them being cured in the long term. The lack of umbilical cord blood donations is creating problems with one in five hundred births donating cord blood – the remaining four hundred and ninety-nine births are having their cords and the cord blood thrown out.
The best thing you can do to help increase in the amount of cord blood collected is to use the service and donate cord blood. If you are pregnant, ask the hospital or midwife if they collect cord blood. If not, there are many agencies that will collect it, either for public cord blood banking, or, if you are prepared to pay the price, your own personal cord blood banking. If friends or relatives are pregnant, get them to inquire about the process.
The more people who donate cord blood, particularly for research, the more likely it is that science will find ways to cure diseases such as juvenile diabetes, brain injuries and spinal column injuries. Why waste a valuable resource by throwing it into a hospital incinerator when it could be used to save lives. The umbilical cord – who would have thought that cord blood stem cells could do so much? If you know someone who is pregnant, get them to donate cord blood.