The Importance of Collecting Umbilical Cord Blood

In Medical Terminology Cord blood is defined as the "Placental Blood". It is the waste blood that remains in the umbilical cord of the baby after it has been cut and detached from the infant. This blood is a rich source of stem cells. These valuable cells are genetically unique to your baby and family and can be collected in minutes after your baby's birth. Preserving your newborn's stem cells is called cord blood banking and allows you to have your baby's cord blood saved for potential medical uses to treat life-threatening diseases. If you do not choose to bank your baby's cord blood, it will be discarded after birth.


Cord blood banking involves several procedures including collection, processing and storage. Cord blood collection is a simple, safe and painless procedure that usually takes less than five to ten minutes and can be performed after vaginal or cesarean births. After your baby has been born and the cord has been clamped and cut, the blood will be drawn from the umbilical cord before it is discarded.


Many medical experts consider cord blood of baby as one of the vital products, whenever they deal with some complicated diseases in patients. Hence, many parents across the world are ready to invest in this cost effective health based feature for the benefit of their offspring. Considering the benefits of Cord Blood, it has become imperative to store cord blood of your baby soon after its birth for the treatment of multiple life threatening diseases which might crop at a later age.

Cord blood of baby need to be collected immediately at the time of delivery and delay should not be made during collection because any delayed collection may interfere with the viability of the stem cells in cord blood. Hence, utmost care needs to be taken to avoid any delay in collection of cord blood. Further, it may take about five to six minutes to collect the cord blood.

Generally cord blood of baby is collected by obstetrician or by midwife with experience in collection. Extreme care needs to be taken whenever the blood collection kit is handled. Both during receipt and dispatch of collection kit containing cord blood, one has to be more cautious in selecting the courier service. This is because of the fact that if the courier agency sends the cord blood of baby in containers without bothering on the suitable temperature factor, then the viability of stem cells becomes more questionable. Hence, medical courier is to be selected for dispatch of cord blood of baby.

Generally the steps quoted in any blood collection kit needs to be meticulously followed for the proper collection of cord blood of baby. Since cord blood of baby contains mainly the immature cells that have the capacity to be re-grown into various specific organ-constituents like hepatic structures, brain structures etc., more emphasis is given through out the world on research features pertaining to the cord blood of baby.


There is no harm to either baby or the mother during the collection of cord blood of baby. On payment of nominal fees, the cord blood-banking agency helps to send the cord blood collection kit to the required and expectant mothers, in time. Cord blood of baby needs to be handled carefully without subjecting to any hot conditions to avoid hemolysis.

The stem cells collected from Umbilical Cord Blood is used for the treatment of a wide range of diseases and sickness including Neurological, Blood and Genetic Disorders. The recent stem cell research has proved the potential of these stem cells for the successful treatment of Neurological problems like Parkinson's disease, Spinal Cord Injury, Retinal Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Neuroblastoma (cancer of various nerve tissues often occurring in children).Other blood related diseases which can be treated with stem cell transplant are: Leukemia, Immunodeficiency, Lymphomas, Hodgkin's disease, Bone marrow failure, naming a few.



Your baby's Umbilical Cord Blood is precious. Save it as it can save the life of many. For more information on Umbilical cord Blood Check out http://www.cordbloodinfo.org
And http://www.cordbloodinfo.org/umbilical-cord-blood.html