Umbilical cord blood is the source of the nourishment for the babies during the pregnancy period inside the womb of the mother.

Just after the birth, cord blood is drawn from the umbilical cord and placenta and stored in syringes and sterile bags for the future use.

Cord blood is an affluent source of stem cells. Many years back, umbilical cord was removed along with the placenta and thus a useful and lifesaving substance rich in various multiplicating units was wasted. But now research has proved that this cord blood can be of great medical advantage.

Stem cells found in cord blood has not only proved to be advantageous to the donor but also to the other people. These stem cells help in curing various health problems related to the newly born and is also very helpful in the treatment of various life menacing diseases like cancers, acute leukaemia, neuroblastoma, sickle cell anaemia, juvenile, Cooley’s anemia etc. various heart related problems can also be treated easily with the help of cord blood.

The stem cells present in the cord blood have great potential of multiplying themselves into various tissues, complete organs of the human body, white blood cells which enhance the defence system of the body and red blood cells for increasing haemoglobin levels in the blood.

Cord blood stem cells are used as an effective replacement for the bone marrow transplant as it is a better pool of stem cells then the bone marrow. Though the risk involved in both the techniques is quiet similar, but cord blood transplant is economical, slightly, as compared to the bone marrow transplant. Also the fatal abnormalities accompanying the bone marrow transplant are eradicated by the use of cord blood transplant.

Various metabolism related diseases like batten disease, krabbe disease, adrenoleukodystrophy etc, and many immunodeficiency aliments like thymic and reticular dysplasia, leukocyte adhesion deficiency etc. can be effectively treated with the use of umbilical and placenta cord blood transplant as the stem cells present in the cord blood can increase rapidly in number and form a full organ or tissue. It also helps in increasing the immunity of the person. Cord blood is also helpful in repairing the damaged parts and tissues of the human heart and other cardiac aliments.

After knowing about the worth of the cord blood and its contribution towards the advancement of the medical science, it is now high time for the parents to preserve this valuable substance for good of their child as well as of the mankind and not let it go waste. But now research has proved the importance of cord blood of the welfare of the public.

Thus cord blood banking has become a necessity for collecting and storing the cord blood so that it can be reproduced at any time for the future use. In many countries of the west, there are national foundations and donor programmes which are formed for the preservation of the umbilical cord blood which serves as a boon to medical science.

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