Cord blood banking has become a buzzword today, but there are a number of hesitations or questions in people’s minds relating to many aspects of the cord blood, including the collection of umbilical cord blood.

More awareness needs to be built in order to convince parents in contributing towards a better future of their children, by involving in donating cord blood, that can help cure many blood related diseases.

In many cases, parents are not aware about the details of the collection of umbilical cord blood. In some cases, they fear that this collection process involves draining or removing some amount of blood from their baby’s umbilical cord blood.

Obviously this causes a lot of concern and fear about the possible harm to the baby or the mother during the collection of umbilical cord blood, and whether it might result in infections etc. The first thing to understand is that this collection of umbilical cord blood does not happen directly from the baby and does not include draining of any blood directly from the baby.

After a baby’s birth, once the umbilical cord is clamped, a small amount of residual blood remains in the umbilical cord. This is collected into a special blood bag and then taken for storing and processing.

As the collection of the umbilical cord blood happens after the baby’s birth, it does not affect the baby’s birth and also no harm is caused to the baby or the mother. Since collection of cord blood happens from the umbilical cord, the term ‘umbilical cord blood’ is being used. Collection of blood cells can happen from the umbilical cord even in the case of a C-section, which might sound surprising.

The blood thus collected is then mailed to the umbilical cord blood banks, where it will be tested for various eligibility criteria and then stored in deep freeze containers for future use. Once a person expresses his or her interest in donating the cord blood of their child, the expectant mother and the corresponding obstetrician or midwife are sent pamphlet and other materials to understand the process of collection of umbilical cord blood.

This way, the parents of the unborn child clearly understand what happens during the process. They should also consult their doctors to discuss their questions and any other details regarding the cord blood donation. Umbilical cord blood is found to be rich in stem cells that can generate a lot of blood cells. Collection of umbilical cord blood is a very easy, non-invasive and less time consuming process.