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Umbilical Cord Blood is exactly what it sounds like, the blood that is contained in a newborn baby's umbilical cord at birth. When a baby is born, the umbilical cord is clamped. Then, either before or after the placenta is delivered, the blood remaining in the cord is collected. It is then rushed to a Cord Blood Bank where it will be processed and stored for future use.
Both public and private banks exist for the storage of umbilical cord blood. Public cord blood banks accept donations of umbilical cord blood, to be used for those who need it, for no charge. Private cord blood banks on the other hand, store umbilical cord blood for individuals to save for their child/family, for a fee. There are also fees for OBGYNs who collect cord blood. However, they will often donate their time to those donating their baby's umbilical cord blood to a public bank, which makes the process virtually free. The doctors are willing to do this work for no charge because of the myriad of diseases that umbilical cord blood can successfully treat.
Umbilical cord blood can help treat many types of devastating illnesses such as some types of cancers (Leukemia and Hodgkin's Lymphoma are just two examples) and also blood and immune system related genetic disorders, like Wiskott Aldrich Syndrome. And, there are many doctors and researchers working to see how umbilical cord blood and the stem cells it contains can help patients with other illnesses as well. As a result more cord blood donations are always needed.
Because of the way stem cells work, the more genetically diverse the donations are, the higher the chance of finding matches for a greater number of patients. It is also for this reason that private cord blood banks have created somewhat of a controversy within the medical community. The efficacy of treating someone with their own umbilical cord blood is very minimal, and some doctors feel that the for-profit cord blood banks are essentially charging someone for nothing.
Collection of Umbilical Cord Blood is surely a new process, which some do find controversial. But, many times the stem cells contained in cord blood are the only treatment that is successful for a patient. While keeping a child's umbilical cord blood for him/herself may not be advantageous, it can potentially be a gift for someone else.
The collection and storage of umbilical cord blood has become a hot topic these days, but why? Well, because the blood contained in a newborn baby's umbilical cord and to a lesser extent, her placenta, holds powerful cells known as "stem cells". Stem cells are cells that have the ability to regenerate tissue over a lifetime. The stem cells contained in umbilical cord blood (also known as Hematopoietic Stem Cells or HSCs ) should not be confused with embryonic stem cells, and the controversy surrounding them.
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