Senate committee approved umbilical cord storage bill

Senate committee had given approval on a bill asking the health department of Missouri about sharing information related to umbilical cord storage.  Hundreds of researches have been done by thousands of researchers all around the world. It has been observed that stem cells taken from cord blood have the capability to treat about eighty diseases. These especially include leukemia, sick cell anemia and bone marrow syndromes. The bill sponsor Tishaura Jones said that Missouri is a hub of the one of the best cord blood banks. Additionally, even Jones has also donated the cord blood during the birth of son.

Jones said that the cord blood stem cells were collected from the birth of the second child. First son, Joseph was suffering from a severe disease of sickle cell anemia. The cells extracted were used for the stem cell transplantation and completely cured the first son. According to Jones, it took hardly two and half years to make regular visit to the hospital. If cord blood had been discarded at that time there would be no hope of saving Joseph life. Many of the parents have this misconception that the porcedure of cord blood banking involves invasive procedure.

While the mechanism of cord blood stem cells banking is totally safe and quick. It only takes ten minutes after the birth of baby when umbilical cord has been separated. The stem cells then can be used for the treatment of baby, siblings and even for the whole family or relatives.  After many researches it has been found that cord blood form the relatives show more effectiveness rather than those obtained from non –relatives . According to a study about six million women in the entire world have gone for cord blood donation which is a huge achievement.

There are both public and private banks among the options of cord blood banking. While public banks charge no cord blood cost private bank has some fixed charges for the collection and storage. All the women must decide whether they wanted to donate or not before the beginning of third trimester. The bill would inform women about the significance of cord blood and this it will be an effort to save thousands of lives. This way it will also generate funds for the state to carry further researches. The committee will ask obstetricians to refer women before their third trimester to provide knowledge about cord blood assortment. The bill was passed by giving unanimous votes. It is an appreciated step in the medical history. It has eventually brought a new hope for the patients suffering from fatal diseases.