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 issue of the advantages of cord blood transplants over one marrow transplants as a therapy for medical conditions.

The advantages of cord blood are these:

The cord blood transplant for the child from whom the blood has come from will be a perfect match. A perfect match is an advantage as it lessens the chance of rejection.

Cord blood is stored in cold storage in a cord bloob bank and can be used as soon as it's needed. This is in contrast to waiting weeks or months to find a suitable adult bone marrow donor. In fact it is estimated that over 50% of people in the US who require a bone marrow transplant fail to find a suitable donor.

The process of collecting cord blood is relatively easily and simple. In contrast, bone marrow donation is invasive and painful.

So in conclusion, cord blood does hold promise for the future, for both private use as well as the benefits it has for the public to help people in medical need who cannot find a suitable bone marrow transplant.

For more about cord blood see this site on cord blood banking www.parentscordblood.com for more articles on this topic.

There's even a section on cord blood videos to watch a cord blood transplantation.

As well as this, stem cell research is being helped by the use of stem cells found in cord blood.

This is another related area to cord blood, and more and more is discovered about how cells can be used for treatment as stem cell research continues.

Currently, Massage Web Designs is only available in the United States.