What Can Cord Blood Be Used For? (2024)

FAQs

What Can Cord Blood Be Used For? ›

What Can It Be Used For? The umbilical cord fluid is loaded with stem cells. They can treat cancer, blood diseases like anemia, and some immune system disorders, which disrupt your body's ability to defend itself.

Cord blood contains cells called hematopoietic stem cells. These cells can turn into any kind of blood cell and can be used for transplants that can cure diseases such as blood disorders, immune deficiencies, metabolic diseases, and some kinds of cancers. Research is revealing more and more ways it can save lives.

How does umbilical cord blood help save lives? Umbilical cord blood contains blood-forming stem cells, which can renew themselves and differentiate into other types of cells. Stem cells are used in transplants for patients with cancers like leukemia and lymphoma.

The most common reasons parents choose cord banking are: Your baby's cord blood could be used by someone who needs a stem cell transplant to save their life. Private blood banking can help someone in your family if they need a stem cell transplant. Banking cord blood doesn't affect you or your baby at all.

In a haploidentical transplant, the donor and patient only need to have a 50% match as long as they are immediate relatives. This expands the use of cord blood to mom and dad and other partially matching immediate family members.

Doctors do not recommend that you bank cord blood on the slight chance that your baby will need stem cells someday. If your baby were to need stem cells, he or she would probably need stem cells from someone else rather than his or her own stem cells.

Usually, the umbilical cord and placenta are discarded after birth. If a mother chooses to have her cord blood collected, the health care team will do so after the baby is born. With a sterile needle, they'll draw the blood from the umbilical vessels into a collection bag.

Do Hospitals Keep Placentas? Hospitals treat placentas as medical waste or biohazard material. The newborn placenta is placed in a biohazard bag for storage. Some hospitals keep the placenta for a period of time in case the need arises to send it to pathology for further analysis.

Is it better to donate or keep cord blood? ›

Typically the umbilical cord and placenta are discarded after your baby is born—unless you decide otherwise. You can choose to have your baby's cord blood collected and donated to a public cord blood bank, stored in a family (private) cord blood bank, or saved for a biological sibling who has a diagnosed medical need.

The issue of who owns cord blood is debated. Some suggest that the cord blood sample is the property of the child on the basis that it is developmentally, biologically and genetically part of the child. Others suggest that it is the mother's property once the cord is cut.

Newborn babies normally leave the hospital with the stump of their umbilical cord still attached. Between five and 15 days after the baby's birth, it will dry out, turn black and drop off. Some parents decide to keep the remainder of the cord as a keepsake and store it in a special box or scrapbook.

Cord blood contains stem cells. These are cells that can grow into specific kinds of cells in your body. Stem cells may be used to treat some diseases, like some forms of cancer and anemia. Anemia is when you don't have enough healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen to the rest of your body.

Michael Chez, director of Pediatric Neurology at the Sutter Institute, reports that “the results of this study indicate that cord blood stem cells may offer ways to modulate or repair the immune systems of these patients with autism, and in doing so, improve language and some behavior in some children.

While the chances of a sibling being a genetic match are higher, the only 100% certain match will be the child's own cord blood (autologous). The children must be whole siblings for the match to have substantial potential; half-siblings likely will not be a match.

As of today, the use of cord blood has proven to be effective in helping treat nearly 80 conditions including: cancers, blood disorders, bone marrow failure syndromes, metabolic disorders, and immune disorders.

Should I store my baby's umbilical cord blood for my family or donate it for public use? Donating cord blood for public use or storing it for your family's private use is a personal decision. Typically the umbilical cord and placenta are discarded after your baby is born—unless you decide otherwise.

Usually, the umbilical cord and placenta are discarded after birth. If a mother chooses to have her cord blood collected, the health care team will do so after the baby is born. With a sterile needle, they'll draw the blood from the umbilical vessels into a collection bag.

This unique substance can be frozen and stored for future use in blood stem cell transplants. Cord blood is particularly beneficial for patients who struggle to find a suitable adult donor or require a swift transplant, notably infants, children, and, in specific situations, adults.