Things You Should Know About Cord Blood

The blood left in the umbilical cord as well as placenta after the birth of a baby is called as the Cord Blood. Cord blood is rich in stem cells, which can be used in treating medical conditions like immune deficiencies, cancer, and genetic disorders. 

Once the child is born, the umbilical cord is clamped and blood from the placenta and cord is collected in sterile bag. The collected cord blood unit then gets delivered to blood bank, where it gets examined to ensure it has enough amounts of cells, which can be used for the process of transplantation. 

Once they are examined and passed they are frozen and stored in the blood bank until is required for the process of transplantation. If the collected unit contains little cells, the blood then is used for the purpose of medical research related with cord blood transplantation. 

There are many places where people do not know much about cord blood and they throw the placenta away with the cord blood after the birth of the new born baby.

Donating cord blood is a pain less process and you can donate it on Cordblood for Life to save a life of someone facing medical illness. 

By donating cord blood, you get a chance to save the life of someone who is in need of it or discover a medical treatment that can save life and gets a change in the life of thousands in future. Do not let your baby cord be thrown away as a waste instead this painless procedure can be a gift for someone. 

What are stem cells?

Stem cells are building block cells found in the body, which is developed into multiple kinds of cells. Stem cells that produce blood are found in the cord blood and when they are donated to another person that is in need of treatment that is life saving this can be used as a blood cell that is required by the patient’s body. It could be white blood cell, red blood cell, or platelets. 

What do you mean by blood stem cell transplantation?

There are thousands of patients diagnosed with disease every year who needs treatment with blood stem cell transplant or hematopoietic. 

The stem cells come traditionally from the bone marrow donation from a relative or a donor who is unrelated. There are 10,000 to 15,000 patients estimated every year that do not find a donor who matches with the million donors listed on the global database. 

Due to the rapid progression in their disease patients find it hard to find a unrelated adult donor in the time given. In situation like this, cord blood is the option available for transplantation of stem cells. 

When someone has a condition or disease that prevents their body to produce healthy blood cells, they require blood stem cell transplantation. The transplantation changes the cells that are defected into the healthy ones. Examples for these condition and diseases include:

• Lymphoma and leukemia.
• Thalassemia.
• Aplastic anemia.
• Sickle cell anemia.
• Combined immunodeficiency syndrome.
• Chronic granulomatous.
• Congenital neutropenia.

Making a difference matters a lot and can be a miracle for many, you can now be the reason behind the miracle in someone’s life by just donating Cord Blood after the birth of the child.

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Earnest Dunaway

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