Did you know that your baby’s cord blood could potentially save his or her own life or his or her sibling’s life? In this four part series, we will be sharing more about the potential of cord blood, banking cord blood and other important cord blood-related decisions you will need to make as a parent.
The connection between mother and child from conception is a purposeful one. This umbilical cord not only provides the baby with essential nutrients for development, it contains cord blood that is beneficial in healing.
What is Cord Blood?
Cord blood stems from the umbilical cord and has the potential to save lives. The umbilical cord contains both cord blood and cord lining.
What can Cord Blood and Cord Lining do?
Cord blood and cord lining are rich sources of stem cells. Both cord blood and cord lining contain stem-cells for blood-forming, infrastructure-building and have the potential to treat diseases through providing new cells to replace damaged, diseased or defective cells. These stem cells work best for oneself, a sibling or a matched recipient.
What can Cord Blood treat?
Life-threatening illnesses can strike anyone and be debilitating to its victims. With the stem cells from cord blood, there are many diseases that can potentially be treated. For instance, at least 50% of childhood cancer incidences can be treated using cord blood stem cell transplant.
Currently, there are over 80 diseases that can be treated with stem cells and this number will continue to increase as medical technology advances. Examples of treatable diseases include blood diseases such as thalassemia, blood cancers such as Leukaemia and Lymphoma, metabolic disorders, immune disorders and solid tumours. In Singapore, about 100 new cases of childhood cancers are detected in children less than 15 years old here each year.
The stem cells from cord blood and cord lining are still undergoing many clinical trials and they will potentially be used to treat many other diseases. Stem cells from cord blood, for instance, may be able to treat autism, diabetes, hearing loss, heart disease and spinal cord injury. In addition, stem cells from cord lining can be used for tissue repairs for burns, osteoarthritis, shorten time for engraftment and treat Type 1 Diabetes.
To put it simply, you could use your baby’s stem cells in treating a disease in event that a life-threatening illness hits.
How is Cord Blood Collected?
The process of collecting cord blood is a painless one for both mother and child. Three tubes of maternal blood are collected for testing before delivery. Upon delivery, the umbilical cord is clamped for the collection of cord blood. The cord blood and cord lining will be stored in a cryogenic environment. Be assured that cord blood collection is a safe, painless and risk-free procedure.
Harness the potential of your baby’s cord blood by banking it. Your decision could make a difference in the future of your child’s life.
In our next article, we will be sharing more about choosing the right cord blood bank. Stay tuned!
For more on cord blood banking, visit cordlife.com/sg or call 6238 0808.