The Benefits of Donating Cord Blood

After the birth of a child the blood remaining in the umbilical cord and placenta is called Cord blood. Cord blood is a very important alternative in bone marrow transplantation as it has all the natural constituents of blood and is great in blood forming stem cells. They are similar to the ones found in bone marrow, but do not need a match between the recipient and donor. 

Blood from cord blood extends the access of transplant of stem cell for the patients without a matched stem cell or bone marrow donor. The patients who do not have donors available are often a minority race or ethnicity. When the donor background is similar to the cord blood donation, it becomes very helpful. 

If you want to donate your cord blood to save and change a life, you can get it done through Cordblood for Life. Donating cord blood is done in a systematic way and you will be well assisted throughout the process. 

Knowing it helps save lives, mothers have begun to donate the umbilical cord blood of their newborn and have it preserved in the public bank so that it is available to anyone in need.

Cord blood treatment is similar to the condition of bone marrow transplantation, but has many advantages like:

They are easy to collect

There is no risk or pain for the baby and mother in the process of extraction of blood from umbilical cord. The procedure of collecting the blood is done at the same time of cutting the umbilical cord. On the other hand, collection of bone marrow needs an invasive surgical procedure and an anesthesia that comes along with inherent risks. 

Better match

For successful stem cell transplant there should be match for the receiver. Similar stem cells can be easily found in a public database, but no guarantee is provided. Having a stem cell matching genetically from the family related to blood mostly has a successful transplant results. if a person can not find a match, the patient has to depend on his own stem cell or the ones that are immediate member of the family. 

There is lesser risk post transplant

Including being better accepted by the body entirely, the cord blood stem cells significantly have lesser risk in post transplant GVHD (graft versus host disease). GVHD happens when the cells that are transplanted attacks the body. This is a major complication someone can face in transplantation of stem cells. 

The risk of facing GVHD after transplanting stem cell depends on the relationship between the receiver and the donor: 

• Identical twins has a very low chance of facing the risk of GVHD
• Blood related members of the family have about 35 to 45 percent chances of facing GVHD.
•  When the donor is unrelated to the receiver there is 60 to 80 percent chances from the donor to have risk of GVHD.

Part of this is accepted by the body in a better way because cord blood stem cells are hardly contaminated by the latent viruses. It is not the same with stem cells from different sources. For the following reason cord blood is said to be privileged as they have not faced any diseases. 

Now that you know how important and safe cord blood can be make sure that you make use of it by preserving them safely.