So what is umbilical cord blood all about?

Well in this introduction to cord blood, I'd like to go through some basics of 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 have a look at the topic of public versus private banking of cord blood.

One reason for cord blood use is private banking. That is, if the child ever needs a cord blood transplant because of medical illness such as leukemia, inherited immune disorders or metabolic storage diseases, then it can be stored in a bank and used later.

This obviously involves a fee paid to the bank.

The second use is for public donation. That is, to donate cord blood for anyone in medical need to use. The blood is given to a public cord bank with are often partly publicly and partly privately funded with private donations.

This is akin to public blood or public bone marrow donation. The advantage of cord blood donation is that it is relatively simple and pain free.

However not all states and cities have cord blood banks.

Perhaps the largest collection of cord blood units in the world in the one in New York, the NY Blood Centre.

So there you go, the world of stem cell donation by cord blood 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 looking at the particular question of 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.