Most parents-to-be would have heard about the option to harvest stem cells from their newborn's umbilical cord blood.
But what are the benefits of keeping it?
While storing cord blood is not a mandatory procedure, many of us know about the life-saving potential of stem cell therapy for people who suffer from certain life-threatening diseases and may decide to explore the option of saving their children's cord blood in the future for peace of mind.
What are stem cells?
Umbilical cord blood is a source of stem cells. These are primitive cells that have the potential to replicate all other blood cells, such as white blood cells - which fight infection, red blood cells and platelets. Stem cell transplants may be offered when a patient has a blood related, genetic or immune disease, and other forms of treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiation, have alreayd weakened the patient's immune system. Stem cells can also be extracted from bone marrow and peripheral blood (See more information on stem cells here.)
In addition, stem cells are also being explored for use in repairing or replacing damaged and alternative diseased tissue and organs, according to an interview Cordlife's technical director, Dr Andrew Wu, gave to Young Parents magazine.
To date, umbilical cord blood may be used to treat more than 107 diseases, and cord blood stem cells are showing potential to treat conditions that have no cure currently. So far, there are two families who stored their children's cord blood with the two private cord blood banks in Singapore and have successfully used it.
Parents who opt to have their children's cord blood stored privately can look forward to some other benefits as well, such as facing lesser risk of complications and rejection by the body than when using stem cells harvested from bone marrow since these cells tend to be younger, as well as faster access to their children's cord blood, which would be a consideration especially if the patient were deteriorating quickly.
There are two private cord blood banks in Singapore, CordLife and StemCord. The former can lay claim to being Singapore's only AABB accredited private blood bank, which is an independent assessment conducted by the International Society for Quality in Health Care of a facility's operation level of quality and safety in collecting, processing, testing, distributing and administering blood and blood products.
Besides these two private cord blood banks, there is also a public cord blood bank, the Singapore Cord Blood Bank (SCBB), which encourages the public to donate their children's cord blood, as chances of a baby requiring the use of this banked cord blood later in life is "very slim".
The rationale for this is that a person who is suffering from leukaemia would probably carry stem cells that are tainted with leukaemia cells. In the same interview with Young Parents, Dr William Hwang, medical director of SCBB, believes that it is better for a person to be treated with non-related cord blood in such a case.
How is collection done?
Immediately after the delivery of a baby, the cord is clamped and baby separated from the cord and moved from the birthing area.
The attending doctor or mid-wife will then collect the umbilical cord blood by inserting a needle into the cord vein, and drain the blood into either a blood bag or a syringe. There is little disruption to the birthing process.
The cord blood is then sent to the private cord blood bank of your choice, or SCBB where it is cryogenically frozen and stored in a nitrogen tank of minus 196 degrees Celcius. There is no expiry date to the stored cord blood.
Whether to store or donate your child's cord blood is a very personal decision, and there is no right or wrong answer. But if you are contemplating doing so, you can head down to Cordlife's Baby Care Festival at Singapore Expo Hall 6B, Booth G01, from today until 21 March 2010 to look for more information.
