Well in this introduction to cord blood, I'd like to go through some basics of banking cord blood and why parents are deciding to donate their baby's umbilical cord blood for the sake of their future health.

Firstly, realise that cord blood has 2 main areas of use, firstly for private or public donation for use as blood cell transplantation.

And secondly, it is used in a minor way for stem cell research to research on how stem cells can be turned into more mature functioning cells.

Let's consider in this article the basics of how cord blood is collected.

The steps are these:

After delivery of the baby, the umbilical cord is clamped in the usual manner and then the blood between the umbilical cord and the placenta is collected. This is done with a syringe and a resulting 5-6ml of blood is collected.

Next comes the transportation of the umbilical cord blood to a cord blood bank for processing and cryogenic storage.

Then the cord blood is either stored for a yearly fee if stored for private use. That is for the baby's future use in case he or she requires a cord blood transplant for illnesses such as leukemia or lymphoma.

If however, the cord blood was donated for public use, then the blood unit will be for example listed with the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) if the bank is affiliated with the NMDP program. This is like a search registry for doctors to find suitable donations of blood for ill patients.

Some banks are not associated with the NMDP however.

So there you go, the world of stem cell and cord blood banking is getting more well known every day.

More and more expecting moms and dads are considering cord blood as a means of health protection or insurance for their child in case of serious medical diseases.

Some of course are donating cord blood simply to help others in medical need and so is benefiting the community this way.

More medical research is under way including medical trials, to more closely assess the advantages of cord blood cells over traditional bone marrow transplantation for the treatment of leukemias, lymphomas, metabolic enzyme and storage diseases and immune diseases of childhood and inherited or congenital immune dysfunctions.

Watch this space for more news on cord blood.