What is a Cord Blood Bank?
Cord blood is the blood that comes from the umbilical cord when a baby is born and is very precious and useful to treat certain conditions. Cord blood is stored for future use either privately or to be donated to help others. A cord blood bank is the place where this blood is stored until such a time that it is needed.
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Cord blood is used to help in the treatment of certain medical conditions, some that people are born with and some that develop during their life. Leukaemia is one of the main diseases that can benefit from cord blood treatment. Anemia and some other diseases can also respond well to cord blood treatment.
Cord blood has been saving lives since the 1980s even though it seems like a reasonably new area of medical research. Cord blood contains the purest stem cells and those stem cells can be transplanted into a person to help restore their body and get rid of the bad cells that have been damaged by disease.
Cord blood is stored at the cord blood bank at sub-zero temperatures using a process called cryopreservation. When the blood is ready to be used it can be transplanted into the patient to fight such diseases as neuroblastoma which is a very aggressive type of cancer found in the nerves and tissues of the body.
Neuroblastoma is most common in children and the most effective treatment for fighting this disease is cord blood. Cord blood is preserved in such a way that it can be stored for many years and is still as good as new. Because the blood can be stored for years, many parents are now storing their children’s cord blood when they are born so that if their child, at any point in their life develops a disease, they will have the cord blood ready for use. There is no expiration date on frozen cord blood.
There is a process that the blood goes through when it first reaches the cord blood bank. The blood is screen and the red blood cells are removed. Red blood cells may cause problems if they are transferred back into the body so it is required that they be removed and the remaining cord blood is 99% pure.
When they reach 99% purity they can be sure that they have successfully removed all the red blood cells and there should be no issues regarding red cells when the blood is used at a future date. By doing this process when the blood first arrives at the cord blood bank, the blood is then ready for immediate use when it is required.
The future is unpredictable and you never know what hurdle life may through at you. By saving cord blood with a cord blood bank then you can be assured that you have this treatment available if life does throw you a curveball in way of a serious illness.
The process of collecting the blood when a baby is born is simple and fast, taking around five minutes or less. The cord blood bank will pick up the blood from the hospital, take it back to their premises and have the blood preserved. You never know if you will need cord blood or not in the future, but it certainly helps if you have some stored for if that need arises.
