How Familial Blood and Stem Cell Banking Intertwine

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The potential benefits that the collection and preservation of the umbilical cord stem cell offers to a newborn baby are vast.  It is proven medical fact that a variety of 80 different serious diseases are conquerable and treatable using stem cell therapies.  When cord blood stem cells are extracted following cord blood collection at birth, they are potent, pure, uncontaminated and untampered with.  Cord blood cells have the ability to save a person’s health and their life, as a perfect match is beyond question.

There are rare occasions when the obligatory blood sample taken simultaneously from the mother can reveal diseases and viruses that she might previously have been unaware of contracting.  In a worst case scenario, the baby might have contracted the serious illness from the mother’s blood whilst developing in the womb.  This should not scaremonger expectant parents in to questioning their decision to have their baby’s stem cell cord blood collected, as initial blood tests are carried out upon enrollment in to the process.  It is a positive reflection on the credibility and thoroughness of the cord blood banking process that re-checking of the mother’s blood takes place after childbirth, alongside the testing of the stem cell cord blood itself before it is preserved.

The cord blood preservation process, however, potentially also offers similar benefits to the child’s siblings as it does to the child itself from whom the cord blood is banked.  This presents an immense additional bonus lacking to parents donating cord blood to public blood banks.  They relinquish all rights to the stem cells extracted from their baby’s cord blood.  Should their child or a brother or sister require stem cell treatments during their lifetimes, they are subjected to a matching process that can be expensive, time consuming and unguaranteed. 

Parents opting to go private are not only assured of a guaranteed 100% match for the child itself, but there is also a 25% chance of stem cell matching with biological brothers and sisters.  If a sibling suffers from a disease that is treatable with stem cells, precious time can be saved, with a higher chance of finding an immediate match, thus enabling treatment to start sooner.  In such cases, blood tests are performed on the sibling to check their match with the banked cells. 

As parents might expect, medical science in this field is complex and continuously evolving.  It helps them to put the facts in to perspective whilst making a fully informed decision about having their baby’s cord blood collected and preserved.  It is certainly interesting for them to be aware of the relationships between the bloods of mothers, babies and siblings.  Cryo-Cell Cord Blood Bank is at the very cutting edge of this process and, whilst it is based in North America, it has international clients and an increasing number of affiliate services in Asia and South America.  Its healthcare professionals are highly qualified and well placed to answers any questions parents might have about any medical or practical aspects of this miraculous process.