Cord blood preservation is a technique used to keep cord blood safe for an extended period of time. This is typically done by harvesting the blood from the umbilical cord shortly after a child is born and then freezing the blood. Cord blood preservation is important because it allows families to save blood in a bank that could be used to treat more than 80 diseases in the future. One of the big benefits of cord blood preservation is that it is much more likely to match with a recipient than bone marrow is.
Cord blood is the blood that comes out of the umbilical cord after a baby is born. This blood has been found to be different than traditional blood, as it has a high concentration of stem cells. This blood has been used to treat many different diseases and new uses for this type of blood are still being developed.
There are a number of companies that engage in cord blood preservation. These companies will come to the hospital and take the cord blood for their customers and then store it in a safe location. This cord blood can be stored in the same facility for many years until it is needed. The family who wants to keep the cord blood will have to pay a certain fee to the company that stores it.
Cord blood preservation is important because it allows families to plan ahead in case a family member is ever stricken with disease. There are many diseases that can be cured by using a cord blood transplant. For example, one of the most common conditions treated with cord blood is leukemia. If a family member comes down with leukemia, he or she can gain access to the cord blood that was saved in the secure facility.
One of the primary benefits of using cord blood is that it is easy to match the recipient. It does not require an exact match in the same way that bone marrow does. This means that instead of having to find a bone marrow donor that matches exactly and implementing a bone marrow transplant, the individual could access cord blood and have a cord blood transplant instead. The odds of finding a donor are much better with this strategy.
