Cord blood is the blood that stays in the placenta and the umbilical cord of the baby after the baby is born. In most cases, cord blood is discarded soon after the baby’s birth. Cord blood banking, however, is when a baby’s cord blood is stored and preserved in an external facility for later medical use. The practice has gained popularity in recent years among parents of different backgrounds for a number of reasons.

Many parents approaching the birth of their child may wonder why they would want to store the blood of their baby in a cord blood bank. The reasons for this are several. First, your baby’s cord blood is an excellent source of stem cells that bear a close genetic resemblance to both your baby and your baby’s siblings, if he or she has any, as well as to you and your partner. The stem cells are dominant cells of the body, which means that they have a hand in the later development of every system, organ, and tissue in the human body.

Stem cells have the unique ability to turn themselves into just about any other kind of cell in the human body; this is typically done so new development and growth can occur in needed parts of the body. For example, the immune system, which allows us to respond to and fight nearly any kind of pathogen that enters the human body, given enough time, is created primarily from stem cells.

The ability of these cells to turn themselves into specialized cells has made them a favoured tool of physicians in the treatment of certain inherited health disorders, as well as leukemia, a cancer of the bone. Cord blood stem cells are related in that they can be used to treat diseases much as bone marrow cells can, but they are rejected by the body’s immune system significantly less frequently than are bone marrow sells.

Cord blood banking of a baby’s stem cells and blood cells, therefore, can be thought of as a kind of long term insurance for the health of your child and his or her siblings. In most situations, you will not have a need to reach your baby’s stem cells so you can treat a later medical problem, and this is of course what all parents hope for.

However, you can give yourself and your family peace of mind with the knowledge that you have a powerful resource to treat certain disorders in your baby’s cord blood bank, should you someday need it. Your baby’s cord blood derived stem cells may prove essential in the treatment of certain conditions or diseases that afflict not only your baby, but your baby’s siblings or you or your spouse.

The process of cord blood collection is painless, simple, and very safe. In most cases, it doesn’t take more than five minutes of your time. It doesn’t have any effects or impacts on the delivery of the baby and may occur with both traditional and cesarean births.