Cord Blood Banking: Understanding How It Works And Why It's Important

Cord blood banking is a wonderful chance to protect your family against 80+ diseases. Learn more about it in this blog.

Every parent wants to give their babies the best start—the coziest nurseries, the snuggliest clothes and the nicest toys. But what if we tell you that the actual best start that you can give them goes beyond these? Well we are talking about cord blood banking—a simple way to give your little one the perfect kickoff—the assurance of good health from Day 1.

In this blog, we’ll walk you through the essentials of cord blood banking, giving you a complete understanding of how it works and why it's important.

So keep reading!

What Is Cord Blood?

As per the name, it’s the blood that remains in the umbilical cord, after your baby is born. The cord blood contains RBCs, WBCs, platelets and plasma just like regular blood. But additionally, cord blood also contains a very special type of cells called stem cells. These stem cells have the power to mature into different types of blood cells, making them a treasured resource for treating over 80 medical conditions.

What Is Cord Blood Banking?

Shortly after your delivery, the umbilical cord is clamped and cut off from the baby. Usually, this is discarded as a medical waste. But this umbilical cord, like mentioned earlier, contains cord blood which is rich in potentially lifesaving stem cells.

Cord blood banking is the process of collecting the umbilical cord blood, processing it and preserving it in a stem cell bank. That way, this preserved cord blood (rich in stem cells) can be later retrieved and used for transplant purposes if the need arises.

Cord blood is scientifically known to treat multiple life threatening diseases ranging from cancers to blood, immune & metabolic disorders. Let’s explore this in more detail.

Why Is Cord Blood Banking Useful For Me?

Cord blood can help treat more than 80 medical conditions. Let’s dive deep into the list of diseases treated by stem cells. These include:

1. Cancers: Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia, etc.
2. Blood Disorders: Aplastic Anemia, Fanconi Anemia, Beta Thalassemia Major, etc.
3. Immune Disorders: Ataxia–telangiectasia, Bare Lymphocyte Syndrome, DiGeorge Syndrome, etc.
4. Metabolic Disorders: Krabbe Disease, Hunter Syndrome, Hurler Syndrome, etc.

What Are The Types Of Cord Blood Banking I Can Do?

There are different types of cord blood banking facilities available. You can choose one that aligns better with your requirements. These include:

1.Public Cord Blood Banking

In a public cord blood bank, cord blood samples are donated for charitable use or medical research. When you donate your baby’s cord blood to a public cord blood bank, you’re authorising them to give it away to someone in need of a transplant or for use by scientific community for doing research.

2.Private Cord Blood Banking

A private cord blood bank is a paid facility where you can store your baby’s cord blood for personal use in future. It’s important to remember here that the probability of your baby using their own umbilical cord blood stem cells in future is quite low.

3.Community Stem Cell Banking

The Community Stem Cell Banking model encompasses the benefits of both public and private stem cell banks. A community stem cell bank is like a combined pool of thousands of cord blood units that members have access to in case of transplant needs. And the same pool is shared across all the parents who sign up for it.

In 2017 LifeCell—India’s largest stem cell bank, pioneered the community stem cell banking model in the country. To date, it’s proudly a trusted choice of more than 4.5lakh parents and has the largest repository of 75000+ cord blood units. According to ICMR,  this means that the beneficiaries have a greater than 97% chance of finding an ethnic match in case of a transplant need.

LifeCell also offers additional benefits like protection to the entire family, unlimited sample retrieval, financial assistance of up to 20 lakhs for transplants, and much more.

Final Thoughts

Becoming parents means taking up new responsibilities and initiative to ensure a safe and healthy future for your baby. And that’s why as new parents, you must be thoroughly informed about cord blood banking—a vital step that can protect your baby and entire family against the impact of potentially life threatening diseases in future. Understanding its benefits and the different cord blood banking models available can help you to a great extent in making an informed decision that can go on to benefit your entire family.

Among different cord blood banking options, LifeCell’s Community Stem Cell Banking definitely stands out as a leading choice, thanks to its wide array of benefits and perks of both private and public cord blood banking models.

If you're willing to learn more about it, reach out to them at 18002665533 or visit www.lifecell.in to explore how LifeCell can help your family.

(This article is part of IndiaDotCom Pvt Lt’s consumer connect initiative, a paid publication programme. IDPL claims no editorial involvement and assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content of the article.)