from Zimbio.com
When I was pregnant with my first daughter, cord blood banking was one of my two top priorities, natural birth being the other one. Today, cord blood is being used to treat such life-threatening diseases as leukemia and other cancers, as well as certain blood and immune disorders that formerly necessitated a bone marrow transplant.
A quick overview about cord blood banking:
1) Cord blood is the blood that remains in the newborn’s umbilical cord after the cord has been cut. Doctors have identified that cord blood is a rich source for stem cells, which can be used in medical treatments. Cord blood is routinely discarded after birth but a process known as cord blood banking allows families to save their newborn’s cord blood for potential future medical use.
2) Cord blood stem cells are unique! In comparison to adult stem cells, cord blood cells have higher rates of proliferation, immunological immaturity, and reduced exposure to viruses and aging.
4) Cord blood banking is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for parents to save the stems cells found in the blood of their newborn’s umbilical cord. Cord blood banking is safe for both the mother and the newborn since the cord blood is collected after the baby is born and the umbilical cord has been clamped and cut. Once the cord blood has been collected, it is sent to a laboratory for processing and storage.
5) In cord blood “processing”, the facility can determine how many usable stem cells were collected, the higher the amount, the greater chance that the family may have positive outcomes if they ever need to use them for future medical treatments. In traditional transplant medicine, having more cells available for treatment may help the patient recover faster, experience fewer complications, and ultimately, increase the chance for survival. A doctor will use all of the stem cells in transplant in order to give the patient the best chance for rapid regeneration of their blood and immune system.In Regenerative Medicine, a higher number of cells may offer the ability to have multiple treatments.
My husband did our research and came upon the decision to bank our daughters cord blood based on a couple of factors.
1) My husband’s mother died when he was a teen of cervical cancer so we have a cancer link in our family genealogy though we are aware that heredity and cancer links are unknown.
2) We thought…this is something that could potentially save our daughter or other members of our family (if they are a match) from life-threatening illnesses. It would be disgarded otherwise.
We decided to go with CBR (Cord Blood Registry) based on experience, storage facility details, collection and processing made easy, and their commitment to ongoing research.
There are a couple of things about cord blood banking that we weighed with our decision making.
1) It is expensive. We paid roughly $2,200 and then there is an annual storage fee of about $150
2) With the midwifery model of care, the cord is usually left on as long as possible until it stops pulsing so that the baby gets the maximum amount of blood in it’s body and waiting longer to cut the cord after birth is said to reduce traumatic impact.With cord-blood banking, the cord needs to be cut sooner to secure the maximum amount of stem cell collection.
I hope that my readers find this informative and that it helps open up your mind to new possibilities with birth.
My intuition tells me that we made the right choice for my family and it helps me sleep a bit sounder at night knowing that we have this in the back of our tool belt. Happy Cord Blood Awareness Month (July)!
P.S. You can also choose to donate your baby’s cord blood which may be used for life-saving research or may be given to families in need. Even if you do not want to store it, please consider doing something to help another human.
Amy
OR you could leave your child’s umbilical cord intact and let them receive all the stem cells they evolved to receive at birth from the placenta when they evolved to receive them.
Harvesting cord blood is incompatible with delayed cord clamping and/or lotus birth, the benefits of which (delayed cord clamping) are more clear than the benefits of cord blood banking. And it’s free.
I hope that you’ll do some research on the minimum amount of time before clamping the cord needed for adequate transfer of blood to secure adequate iron stores for your baby’s first six months. Cord blood is meant to be received by the baby at birth, and banking may interfere with that. Breastmilk also has stem cells, so a physiological birth and normal course of breastfeeding are most important in reducing the risk of cancer.
We found that we would rather prevent serious illness (proven to have a higher chance of occurring with quick cord clamping, associated with banking). So we left the cord attached to the placenta for a good 2 hours before cutting it.
I think that, absent serious illness scattered throughout the family (not just one isolated circumstance), the cord needs to be left attached to let baby receive all nutrients and oxygen. This is how nature/the Creator intended it, and is how our body is designed to function perfectly.
Do you know that quick cord clamping is associated with a host of autoimmune diseases, including autism?
I am not knocking your descision. Rather, I just wanted to give some alternative info.
I waited for my child’s cord to stop pulsating, allowing my baby to transition, and then asked that my midwife collect my baby’s cord blood. I’m glad that I did it! I decided to go with PacifiCord in Orange County because they work with both midwives and OBGYN’s and they provided me with some pretty compelling studies to show that their systems actually work. They even offered free prenatal classes, which showed me how to breastfeed. They also promised to have their own courier pick up the cord blood, and process and store it within 24 hours or less after my delivery. Their courier came within just a few hours! I didn’t even know that he had come by! The courier was so discrete. Their customer service is really unbelievable!