What in the world is cord blood banking? What are stem cells? And why should I save the blood from my baby's umbilical cord? When I first became pregnant, I dove in head first and tried to learn as much as possible about what it meant to be pregnant and what I should expect. I barely understood what morning sickness would be like, let alone the challenge of making medical decisions that could affect my daughter.
Zara's impending birth inspired me to dig deep and do lots of research, and one of the things I learned is the option to preserve my baby's umbilical cord blood.
We decided to bank Zara's cord blood because we wanted "medical piece of mind" knowing that if she would ever become ill, that we would have potential means to help her. Knowing also that this was a "once in a lifetime" chance to take advantage of this opportunity.
During my pregnancy I have contacted 4 stem cells companies that available in Malaysia. For your information we only have 4 companies that doing this cord blood banking. My sister store her baby's cord blood stem cells with Cell Safe. Whilst me on the other side we signed up with Stem Life.
After getting our "cord blood collection kit" I straight away put them in my baby bag so that I wont forget to bring it with me to the hospital when the time comes. A report will be given once the storage are done and it is like a nice certificate and file. I have recommended this to a few of my friends and at this moment most of them are reluctant to do so as it is very expensive, I should say.
What Is Cord Blood?
Cord blood is the blood that is left over from a baby's umbilical cord after the baby is born. This once-in-a-lifetime collection of blood is rich with stem cells which provide families the chance to potentially use it as part of a treatment therapy for over 40 diseases, including various cancers, genetic diseases, blood disorders and immune system deficiencies.
The stem cells are important because they are powerful tools to potentially help a body suffering from disease or illness. In addition, research and development is demonstrating that stem cells may someday change the way many more diseases are treated. Cord blood research is continually being conducted to understand its full potential in stem cell transplantation. You can be ready to embrace such potential treatments, when the time comes, if you have taken the first step of banking your baby's cord blood.Why Would You Want To Save Your Blood?
Maybe you've heard of bone marrow transplants to help people with leukemia. Often, these transplants come from a family member or anonymous donor with a close genetic match. And sometimes, these patients strain to find a matching donor. You won't strain with private cord blood preservation, which has a perfect match rate for your baby and a high probability of being a viable match for a sibling. Current research could perhaps in the future treat such diseases as:
- Heart Disease & Stroke
- Spinal Cord Injuries
- Diabetes
- Nerve and Tissue Regeneration
- Muscular Dystrophy
- Alzheimer's Disease
After reading this article, will you store your baby cord blood? Let me know and I am more than happy to help you get in touch with my friend who is working with Stem Life.
Thanks Ashley for the comment! How are you by the way and take care. Hugs...
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