To listen to some people talk, you would think that umbilical cord blood storage is the end all, be all protection for your newborn child from all possible ills that might befall him or her at any point in the future.
It's so tempting to believe that there might be an answer out there to the intense and nagging fear that plagues all new parents, namely, "How can I protect my precious newborn baby from the dangers of the world?" Unfortunately, as we know, nothing is that simple or clear-cut.
Umbilical cord blood preservation is, indeed, an exciting innovation in the medical field, but it has its limits, as all new "miracle cures" do.
First of all, what exactly is umbilical cord blood storage, or cord blood banking, as it is often called? It is the process of collecting blood from the umbilical cord, which is the cord that connected the fetus and the placenta in utero and allowed nutrients to pass from the mother's system into the baby's.
This process is completed as soon as possible after the baby is born in order to collect as great a volume as possible and put it into cryogenic storage in a cord blood bank.
What is the reasoning behind doing this? Well, simply put, it actually can save your child's life from certain illnesses at some point in the future.
It will not protect them against anything and everything, but it can be of great use in fighting certain juvenile cancers, blood disorders, and also certain immune deficiencies.
The reason for this is that cord blood contains stem cells which can be used in a transplant.
This happens in many instances where a bone marrow donor would have needed to be located if the cord blood had not been banked at the child's birth.
If the cord blood is preserved, then there is no need for a donor, but rather an autologous transplant, meaning self transplant, can be done.
Even though for many diseases with a genetic component, for instance leukemia, autologous transplants are not recommended because of the danger of the cells being transplanted in also being contaminated, there are many diseases, such as sickle cell anemia, where an autologous transplant with the banked cord blood is entirely possible, even recommended, and is the deciding factor in saving a child's life.
It really isn't much of a decision is it?