What Are Some Cold Hard Realities About Preserving Your Infant's Cord-Blood

To listen to some people talk, you would think that umbilical cord blood banking is the end all, be all protection for your newborn child from all possible ills that could befall her or him at any point in the future. It's so enticing to think that there might be an answer out there to the drastic and nagging fear that plagues all new parents, that is to say, "How can I protect my precious newborn baby from the hazards of the world?" Regrettably, as we know, nothing is that simple or clear-cut. Umbilical cord blood conservation is, indeed, an exciting innovation in the medical field, but it has its limitations, as all new "miracle remedies" do.

First of all, what precisely is umbilical cord blood storage, or cord blood banking, as it's often called?

It's the technique of collecting blood from the umbilical cord, which is the cord that connected the fetus and the placenta in the womb and allowed nutrients to pass from the mother's system into the baby's. This method is completed as soon as possible after the baby is born in order to gather as great a volume as possible and put it into cryogenic storage in a cord blood bank.

What is the reason for doing this? Well, simply put, umbilical cord blood actually can save your child's life from certain health problems at some point in the future. It will not protect them against anything and everything, but it may be of great use in fighting certain juvenile cancers, blood disorders, and also certain immune deficiencies. The reasoning behind this is that cord blood contains stem cells which can be used in a transplant. This occurs in many instances where a bone marrow donor would have needed to be located if the cord blood had not been banked at the kid's birth. If the cord blood is preserved, then there is no need for a donor, but instead an autologous transplant, meaning self transplant, can be done.

Even though for many diseases with a genetic factor, for instance leukemia, autologous transplants are not recommended because of the risk of the cells being transplanted in also being contaminated, there are many diseases, such as sickle cell anemia, where an autologous transplant with the banked cord-blood is altogether possible, even recommended, and is the deciding factor in saving a child's life. It truly is not much of a decision is it?

Even though cord blood banking may not be the mystical cure-all pill that some people have proclaimed that it is, it's still a vital tool in protecting your child. There are many children living happy, productive, regular lives today that would certainly not be alive if not for the fact that their parents had the forethought to bank their cord blood.

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