Cord blood is a section of blood taken from an infant’s umbilical string. When a baby is born their umbilical cord is cut and some of the blood remains in it. This blood is not needed later on this blood is called placental blood or umbilical cord blood or cord blood in a short form. It contains rich source of stem cells such as white blood cells, red blood cells, platelets and plasma, which is used to treat over more than 80 kinds of
diseases like leukaemia, lymphoma and anaemia. The blood inside the umbilical cord renews itself and becomes specialized. This blood contains young stem cells. Cord blood also has been identified as good treatment in replacement of damaged blood cells with healthy ones and strengthening the children’s immune system. This blood is also used in the transplantation of bone marrow as an alternative.
Why is cord blood important?
More than half of the paediatric transplant around the world involves cord blood. To be accurate in data, over 30,000 transplants have been completed with the help of this amazing healing cell. The transplantation of the patients suffering from lymphoma, myelodysplasia and severe aplastic anaemia has been done successfully with the help of cord blood.
How to collect it?
The collection of the cord blood is fast, simple and painless. It is collected on the day a new baby is born. It won’t hamper the mother or the child and it won’t interrupt the birth plan as well. When the baby comes out from the mother, the umbilical cord is cut down and with the help of the via cord’s collection kit a needle is inserted into the cord to take out the remaining blood.
This should be done by a specialized doctor or person. After the collection, they will put the collected blood into a seal sack along with the family’s information attached on it.
This sack is kept in the collection kit. Later a medical courier will pick up the kit from the hospital and take it to the via cord’s state of the art lab and its storage facility. The lab specialists will process the cord blood in preparation for long durability.
