What is Cord Blood Banking?When a child is born, the umbiblical cord contains immature stem cells that match the child and is not rejected by the mother's body. Harvesting the cord blood and stem cells from the cord, allows people to store the cells in the event they are needed years later for treatment in various diseases.
It is gaining a lot of popularity and it is not controversial research unlike embryonic stem cell research. The only time you can harvest this type of stem cell, is during the birth of a child.
Why is banking cord blood important to me?
In 2004, my mom passed away from leukemia. She developed the leukemia as a result of many years of chemotherapy treatments for a disease called amyoloidosis. The chemotherapy was suppose to be temporary until a match for a stem cell donor was found.
After years of searching and waiting, a match was found, but in order to proceed with the transplant, doctors wanted to treat the leukemic blasts in her body before moving forward with stem cell transplant. During that treatment, she developed an infection and never recovered.
Obviously, if she had access to healthy stem cells from her own body, she would not have had to wait for a donor.
What does this mean for you and me?
Obviously, technology has come a long way and it will continue to go even further when it comes to finding cures for major diseases through stem cell research. Since the only time you can harvest these type of stem cells is at birth, why not look at it as an insurance policy you hope you never have to use? Some people may consider it too expensive to store your child's cord blood, but if your child ever needs a transplant, do you want to risk not finding a matching donor when it's in your power today to ensure a match?
As a result of my family medical history, we have chosen to store the cord blood with a private company. No, I don't like the cost but I am not going to sit around and wait on the government or insurance companies to make it more affordable. I do hope something changes in the future.
However, if you don't have any kind of family medical history to persuade you toward privatized banking then you can and SHOULD donate your cord blood. It will cost you NOTHING and until this topic gets more attention most physicians don't mention it during pregnancy. Who knows what life you may save?
I hope you will take time to learn more about cord blood banking if you are expecting a child or know someone who is.
- To learn more about diseases that are being treated with cord blood, go to http://www.cordblood.com.
- If you decide to bank with Cord Blood Registry (CBR) then feel free to use the code MSAFE to save $250.00.
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That is really cool and a great idea. Thanks for sharing about it in real-people language.
ReplyDeleteI think this is awesome! I tried to donate it with both my girls. Turns out that the collection people only were there until 7pm and they were both born on Friday night at 9 and 10pm. So we missed out. I'm pretty sure now that the hospital now has someone there 24 hrs. I hope so anyway! What a wonderful gift to give to your child or someone else's!
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