Cord Blood Banking

I guess I wanna blog about Cord Blood Banking cause it seems that some of my friends are not aware of this "IN" thing now. This is a very much talk about topic among expectant parents. Cord Blood Banking for me is considered a very important life insurance for my child. It can save their lives when needed. Unlike those life insurance or medical insurance we buy, we can only claim some money but when saving lives are concerned, they can do nothing.

What are cord blood stem cells?
Cord blood is the blood that circulates through the umbilical cord from the foetus to the placenta. A short time after delivery, the umbilical cord is clamped and cut, and the remaining cord and its associated placenta are usually thrown away. The umbilical cord that remains attached to the placenta, has blood cells within it within which has been found to be rich in blood stem cells. These cord blood cells have the potential to save lives. Blood stem cells are the young or immature cells that can transform into other forms of essential blood cell types, such as red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.

The process:
This is what I knew I went through. Upon signing package with Cord Blood Banking Company, they will brief you on the processes, procedures and how storage of cord blood is considered successful as not everyone can have successful cord blood for storage.

First, a minimum amount of cord blood is required to be collected. If the minimum amount is not met, then cord blood will not be sent for further process. Second, once cord blood is collected by your gynae, the cord blood will be handled over to the cord blood banking representative immediately. Of course, you have to call the cord blood banking representative when you are admitted to hospital so that they will make arrangements to go down to the hospital to collect it. Third, cord blood will be process to retrieve stem cells. Stem cells are what's needed to be stored. Once stem cells is separated from cord blood, they will do a stem count. If the stem count is less than what is required by the cord blood banking company, the storage of cord blood banking is also considered unsucessful. For the Cord Blood Company Im using, their minimum requirements for stem cells count is 100 million cells. Any lesser than 100 million cells, it is considered failure. When everything is successful, a report will be sent to you, informing you on the lab results of the stem cells.

If you want to know more about Cord Blood Banking, pls refer to Cord Blood Banking Company for more details. The Cord Blood Banking Companies that I knew about in Singapore are Cordlife and Stemcord.