Transplants with cord blood donations are now widely used as an alternative to bone marrow transplant. Some of these cases include patients with severe aplastic anemia or leukemia. To date globally, around 6,000 cord blood transplants have been conducted successfully. Particularly in the United States, physicians handling this type of case commonly know this type of transplant.
If you want to consider this option, communicate with the transplant physician who would determine whether bone marrow or cord blood would be best. He would also determine the most suitable unit from the cord blood bank.
To give you further information about cord blood banks, refer to the bullet list below.
* A cord blood or umbilical cord bank stores umbilical cord blood (umbilical cord storage, or stem cell storage or preservation) for private or public use. The local medical community supports this system.
* Parents may choose to have the cord blood stored privately or donated to the public after the birth of their baby. They may opt to save it and store it privately if they think they would need it in the future, especially if they have a history of such need. There are certain costs though, such as storage and collecting the cord blood itself. Public donations (umbilical cord donations) are simply donations for other people's use.
* The National Cord Blood Center's Program governs stem cell transplant for adults and children coming from unrelated donors.
* NCBP already has standard policies and protocols, established since 1996, for handling transplants using cord blood.
* Note that despite these policies, protocols and successful implementation of the program, this procedure is still considered to be in the ‘experimental stage' from the perspective of the regulatory body of medicine, hence, all transplants are considered human research cases.
You can visit the website of the National Cord Blood Program for timely and accurate information about donation and transplants. You can also get technical information (e.g. stem cells, cryocell) and learn the advantages and disadvantages of cord blood transplant. They also offer news about the current developments of this program. You can also get information about possible matching of cord blood available during your visit to the website. Success stories are also there to give encouragement to parents looking at cord blood transplant as an option.
With fast-developing technology in medicine, more and more solutions are developing as alternatives to more familiar systems. The developments offer more hope to individuals seeking treatment. Make sure you discuss with your physician all the alternatives available, so you can decide which procedure to adopt. For life-threatening cases such as these, all available options should be studied carefully.
It is important that you understand all the procedures and underlying implications of alternatives such as these. Make sure all studies and controversies about this system (as there have been issues with cord blood transplants before) are known to you so you can make informed decisions. While your physician ultimately knows what's best, decisions relating to health should be clearly communicated.
Health and Fitness
Preserving and storing umbilical cord blood is not a mockery. Blood from the umbilical cord is a lifesaver according to research. Many lives have been saved and prolonged because of this research. Public cord blood banks accept donations of umbilical cord blood and use this blood to save and prolong the lives of many people. Stories have been published about children and adults being given new life because of umbilical cord blood.
Here are some things to consider on how you can preserve and store umbilical cord blood.
1. Ensure the good health of the baby in your womb. Giving birth to a healthy baby results in healthy umbilical cord blood. Taking the vitamins prescribed for pregnant women ensures the usefulness in preservation and storage of the umbilical cord blood.
2. Remember the precious lives of dying patients. Before giving birth to your baby, inform the hospital that you are allowing a cord blood donation from the umbilical cord of your infant. Doctors would then be very glad to help because this will help advancement in the medical field. Malignant ailments are believed to be treated by the blood from a baby's umbilical cord.
3. Before the placenta is delivered, blood from the umbilical cord is extracted. This is called utero collection. When the collection is done after the placenta is delivered, the process is called ex-utero collection. In this process, the cord blood is drained into a bag after placing the placenta in a sterile structure. The umbilical cord is cut off from the baby and blood is drained using a syringe. Approximately 40 to 150 ml of blood from the umbilical cord must be drained. Some of the mother's blood is also collected to detect if infectious diseases are present.
4. Forward the collected cord blood to a prospective blood bank for storage. Once this blood reaches the banking facility, it is tested for infectious diseases. Within 36 to 48 hours after collection, the samples are transferred to a lab from the cord blood bank. After processing, and if the status was determined to be clean, the blood is ready to be transplanted to family members.
5. One type of processing depletes the cord blood of red blood cells. A cryopreservant is added to the processed cord blood, ensuring that the cryogenic process does not negatively affect the unit of cord blood. A liquid nitrogen tank is used to store the cord blood. The storage temperature would be -90 degrees Celsius.
6. Do not discard the umbilical cord. Preserving and storing the umbilical cord blood is not your concern. Once you donate the blood, the medical staff is in a position to store it and preserve it for future use. Hospitals welcome this gesture because they believe that stem cells from cord blood can be transplanted into children with malignant diseases. It has advantages over bone marrow transplantation.
Dreadful diseases could now be cured with the use of umbilical cord blood. Recipients of cord blood would not know the identity of the donor. Killer diseases can now be treated using cord blood because it has abundant stem cells. Preserving and storing umbilical cord blood has to be taken seriously in order to preserve lives.