What is Cord Blood Banking?Cord blood stem cells
Cord blood is a rich source of Hematopoietic Stem Cells (HSCs). Not only is it a valuable source of stem cells, but is also genetically unique to the baby and family. Cord blood offers unique advantages over bone marrow during transplantation.
What is Cord Blood?
Umbilical cord Blood passes nutrients, oxygen and immunity to your child. It acts as the lifeline, protecting and helping it to grow inside the womb.
Umbilical Cord blood bank is a facility that stores and preserves the stem cells derived from the umbilical cord of the new born baby. The first 5 minutes following birth, gives only one chance to collect and save your newborn's umbilical cord blood. This umbilical cord blood is an abundant source of stem cells. These stem Cells are the Master cells of the human body and carry the ability to create tissue, organs and organ systems. Besides being able to divide indefinitely, they possess the ability to transform into specialized cells. These stem cells are used to treat many life threatening diseases.
Why Bank Stem Cells?
We celebrate the arrival of a new born; we hope and pray that our child will live a long and a healthy life. Babycell offers you the opportunity to preserve this love of yours for years.
When you take a decision to store your baby’s cord blood, you are saving that lifeline which could help treat a long list of life threatening diseases for many years to come. It gives this new life, the opportunity to have a powerful source of cells in the event of a transplant with no immunological rejection risk. If your family has a clinical history with diseases such as blood cancers, or for ethnical minorities or mixed ethnical families saving baby’s cord blood is a sensitive decision and could turn out to be the most important decision of life, as it is difficult to find a matching donor at the time of transplant. We should also remember that causes of many types of cancer and other diseases still remain unknown and, sometimes, they come up even when there is no history amongst the family.
To date, umbilical cord blood has been used in more than 12,000 transplantations for children and adults. Research has demonstrated that cord blood stem cells can differentiate into other types of cells in the body. The regenerative qualities of stem cells have been brought to the forefront in the field of cellular repair.
Stem cells have been labeled an important biological resource and researchers are conducting more and more studies to unlock the potential of umbilical cord blood stem cells in future applications for diseases like Alzheimer's, Diabetes, Heart and Liver Disease, Muscular Dystrophy, Parkinson's Disease, Spinal Cord Injury and Stroke.
Family vs. Public Banking
- Public cord blood banks store donated cord blood for potential use by transplant patients.
- Family (Private) cord blood banks store cord blood on behalf of the client. Family banking offers a sense of security to the family who know that in the event their child or family member needs a transplant, the cord blood is available immediately.
Public Cord Blood Banking
Private Cord Blood Banking
Cord Blood is donated to the bank. Client relinquishes all rights after donation.
Cord Blood is stored for and on behalf of the client.
Use is not restricted to anyone in the world.
Cord Blood is available for use for the family members.
No processing or storage costs are collected from the donor.
Processing and storage costs are borne by the client.
Usage subject to availability.
Availability of Cord Blood for potential future use in family is guaranteed.
Eg. Cord Blood Registry.
Eg. Babycell.
