A cord blood bank is a place to store the blood from the umbilical cord in case it’s ever needed. It can be stored for private use or donated to a facility that can use it to help save the lives of others.
The uses for the blood include helping to fight certain health issues such as leukemia, some types of anemia and many other diseases that threaten the lives of those who contract or are born with them.
The important factor in banking the blood is due to the stem cells. By using cord blood, the stem cells can be given to someone to help eradicate cells in the body that aren’t normal – such as ones that aren’t working correctly or ones that cancer has damaged.
You might think this is a fairly new area of medical research, but using cord blood to save lives has been around since the 1980s.
Using a process called cryopreservation (a process where the blood temperature is lowered to sub-zero temps), the blood is kept safely until it’s needed. The blood stored at a cord blood bank has been used in the fight against neuroblastoma, an aggressive cancerous tumor found in the tissues and nerves of the body.
Neuroblastoma mainly affects children and cord blood is one of the warriors fighting against this disease. Because of the way the blood is preserved, it can be stored for many years and once a child reaches the legal age, he or she can use the donation if their children need it, since there’s no expiration date on the frozen blood.
When the blood is given to the bank, a process takes place that screens the blood and takes out the red blood cells. Because red blood cells can cause problems if reintroduced back into the body, you want to search for a facility that offers 99% purity.
That means they’ve successfully removed the red blood cells so that there won’t be problems when the blood is used. By taking this purity step, that means that when you need it, the blood is ready immediately for use instead of having to go through the step to remove red blood cells at the time of need.
By saving cord blood with a cord blood bank, you can plan ahead in the event a family member develops an illness that can be successfully treated. The process is extremely quick and easy.
Once the baby is born, the blood from the cord can be collected in five minutes or less and the facility where the blood is to be stored will pick up the blood and take it back to be preserved. You can’t know when a serious disease is going to happen to a loved one, but by banking on it, you can give them a better chance to beat the disease.