Preserving Lifelines in Cord Blood Stem Cells

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There are volumes of joyful expectations that naturally come with the happy announcement that a couple are about to extend their family. There are also infinitely more serious issues at hand, besides whether the baby’s nursery will be a blue one or a pink one.  Good health, its maintenance and the taking of relevant precautionary measures to ensure its continuance are doubtlessly key considerations at the very hearts of expectant parents.  After all, without it, all of the educational and material benefits they can offer their child are rendered largely incomparable.

They might well have heard about private cord blood banking or indeed know other parents who took common sense pre-birth decisions to have their baby’s cord blood cells collected and preserved.  Erring on the side of caution, many parents consider it to be a no brainer and endorse the fact that taking care of their child’s future wellbeing far outweighs the financial cost implications.

Whilst the properties of an umbilical cord stem cell are similar to those of a bone marrow stem cell, extraction and preservation at birth carries specific advantages for the former over the latter option.  If at any point during a person’s life they need stem cell transplants or therapies, cells can be extracted from their bone marrow.  However, this process entails a multitude of risks and uncertainties that do not pose potential problems with the collection of stems cells from cord blood. 

The bone marrow procedure is invasive and requires the patient to go under general anesthetic.  Not the case with cord blood extraction, which is carried out straight after labor.  Furthermore, banking directly from the umbilical cord results in cells that are fresh and uncontaminated more so than they could ever be at any other point in a person’s life.  The same cannot be said for bone marrow cells.  Consequently, if a person requires stem cell treatments, from birth to death, it stands to sense, reason and medical science that their body will be more receptive to cord blood stem cells that were preserved in ultimate perfection than born marrow equivalents that might have suffered through illnesses, wears and tears.

 A final consideration in favor of private collection as opposed to public, is that the cells are there, ready, willing and able to be retrieved and used without any additional costs if and when needed.  In the public arena, there are often complex and laborious searching and matching procedures that cause hindrances to stem cell therapies being administered.  Plus there are no guarantees that suitable cells will be found.

The Cryo-Cell Cord Blood Bank was established in 1992 and operates as a highly reputable private cord blood banking expert to this day.  Its experienced and professional staff is happy to dissect information with mums and dads to be in an amiable manner that is not peppered with medical jargon.