The latest thing in pregnancy is cord blood storage. This is when stem cells from the baby’s umbilical cord blood is collected just after birth. The cord blood is then stored in ‘banks’ in order to use the stem cells contained within the blood for a stem cell transplant if needed in the future.
Stem cells have had a lot of bad and good press lately, but not many people are aware of what they actually are and what they can do. They are commonly described as the building blocks fo all the other cells in the body. They have the ability to divide themselves many times to make new stem cells and can also transform into any of 300 different types of cells in the human body. They are found in cord blood, peripheral blood and bone marrow.
The reason why collecting and storing the cord blood for the use of stem cells is that these clever cells can be used to replace diseased cells in an individual with healthy blood stem cells to rebuild their blood or immune system. Cord blood is currently used in the treatment of blood-related disorders such as leukaemia, sickle cell anaemia and thalassaemia, some immune system disorders, and metabolic storage disorders such as Hurler syndrome (an inherited condition caused by an enzyme deficiency). And so, If there is a known genetic condition in your family or you already have a child with leukaemia or a blood-related disorder, your doctor may recommend that you consider banking your baby's cord blood. Or you can store it in case, one day in the future, cord blood stem cells may be useful - if someone in your family develops a disease that can be treated by stem cell therapy. It's a bit like an insurance policy - you may or may not need to, or indeed be able to, cash in on it in the future.
Only a few places do it around the country but it is getting more and more popular. For more information and for a list of places that do cord blood storage visit http://parentsguidecordblood.org/content/usa/banklists/listaustralia.shtml
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