Let’s stop throwing away the umbilical blood

Once parents start excepting a child, there are many things, which they need to plan. For example, the name, the room, the doctor and many more. Today out of all these, the most important thing, which parents plan, is if they require storing the umbilical cord blood or not. The reason t store the blood is very simple. A safe future is always wished by parents for their wards. Parent can store the blood for their child or for public use too. The Umbilical Cord Blood is rich in stem cells and stem cells are rich in white blood cells. The main feature of the stem cells is that it has the ability to regenerate itself. It simple language it is the building block of the body. The undifferentiated cells, which can differentiate into specialized cell types, are called stem cells.

The moment the baby is born the umbilical cord blood has to be collected. The mentionable fact is that the blood should be collected within 10 minutes from the birth. Once the blood is collected, it tested. If the test results are fine then several chemicals are added to preserve the same. The umbilical cord blood needs to be kept at a particular temperature, which is neither too high nor too low. It is very important to store this blood. This umbilical cord blood may be stored for general use or for personal use. If parent decide to store the blood for personal use then it is stored in the private bank. Around $ 1000 to $ 2000 is needed to store the blood at the private bank. Once the umbilical cord blood is stored at the private bank the link to the donor is maintained. The blood may be later used for the donor or any relatives too. The blood is used only with the permission of the donor’s parent. Once the donor is 18 years old then permission of the donor is required. If parent decide to donate the umbilical cord blood, then the blood is stored in the public bank. The link with the donor and the donated umbilical cord blood is lost. The public banks are supported by many medical organizations too. The umbilical cord blood is then used for anybody and everybody in need. There are health centers, which are helping more than 215000 parents since 1992 by storing the umbilical cord blood. As the invention is very young, till now it has been seen that the umbilical cord blood can be stored for 15 years. The number will definitely increase in the coming years. Umbilical cord blood banking is very vital. All the work done after the birth to collect the umbilical cord blood is done by the banks. Parents need to contact the umbilical cord blood banks on the 34^th week of pregnancy. While collecting this blood at least 75 ml of blood is required. Though is blood is too less for the treatment of an adult.