In recent years, a growing number of parents are choosing to save their baby’s cord blood to secure their family’s long-term health. You can store it at a private blood bank for reasonable cord banking costs. There is ongoing research on the benefits of this blood in regenerative medicine to repair damaged tissues, muscles, ligaments, and organs. There are likely to be breakthrough therapies in the coming years to treat many hitherto non-treatable health conditions and diseases.

What is cord blood?

Cord blood is the blood extracted from the detached umbilical cord and placenta after the birth of the baby. The extraction is safe and painless. This blood contains hematopoietic stem cells that are similar to the ones found in the bone marrow and are capable of transforming into many different kinds of cells. There are also mesenchymal stem cells in the soft connective tissue in the umbilical cord. These stem cells can promote cell growth and differentiate into various specialized cells. This differentiation ability of stem cells makes them invaluable for medical therapies and medical research.

How can cord blood help secure your family’s future?

At present, doctors can use cord blood in stem cell therapy to treat over 80 health conditions. These include blood disorders, some cancers, metabolic diseases, and immune deficiency disorders. Stem cell therapy can also help people who have undergone cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation. The doctor will inject the stem cells into the affected area and they will then start differentiating inside the body. They can replenish their patients’ blood with new, healthy cells and aid in speeding up their recovery from cancer.

If your family suffers from any hereditary genetic health conditions or if you simply wish to make provisions for future medical needs, you can choose to store the extracted cord blood in a private blood bank. The monthly or annual cord banking costs can vary according to the bank you chose and the time frame for storage. Many of these blood banks have the facilities and technology to store cord blood for more than 16 years. They will keep the cord blood exclusively for your family’s requirements.

Aside from the medical possibilities of stem cells, storing your baby’s cord blood can reduce the risk of immune system rejection during stem cell therapy. Since there is a genetic match, you may be able to safely use the stem cells from the cord blood to treat your child, his or her siblings, yourself, your spouse/partner, and other relatives. It can also save you the time of searching for and waiting for a compatible donor in case stem cell treatment becomes necessary.

How do you store the cord blood with a blood bank?

To store cord blood, you can register with an FDA-approved blood bank and inform them when you are expecting your baby. They will provide you with a cord blood collection kit that the doctor can use immediately after the birth of your baby. The doctor will insert a needle to collect the blood before the placenta is detached from you. The procedure is safe and painless for both you and the child. The blood will flow from the needle into the collection bag. Keep in mind that there will be more cord blood in vaginal deliveries than in C-section deliveries.

Afterward, the representative from the blood bank will take the collection bag and transport it to the blood bank premises. Here it will undergo processing in a centrifuge to separate and concentrate the stem cells. The technicians at the blood bank will then store the stem cells in special bags and place them in a vapor phase liquid nitrogen storage tank to undergo cryogenic freezing at about minus 190 degrees. The American Association of Blood Banks has established specific guidelines for cord blood storage and all legitimate private banks adhere to these.

When and if you need the blood in the future, you can contact the blood bank and they will unfreeze the stem cells and send them to the hospital in which you are undergoing treatment. All this will come at specific cord banking costs. You must calculate what these will amount to in the long-term and make sure it suits your overall budget.