Cord Blood is the blood
that comes with the umbilical cord during the birth of the baby. In the earlier
days, it was considered as a bio-waste. Today, it was medically proven that
it contained rich source of stem cells that can be used to help patients
with life-threatening illness!
I got to know Cord
Blood Banking after attending some child birth seminar. The seminar was
sponsored by a Private Cord Blood Bank and they shared with us the benefit of
banking our baby's cord blood.
In gist, here's what I gathered:
- The parents will sign a
contract with this private cord blood bank which will lapse when the baby
reached adult hood (21 years old).
- There is a fee for it.
- During birth, the
doctor will collect the cord blood and put them into a container ,which will be
courier to the Cord Blood Bank.
- When there
is a need, the parents can withdraw the cord blood at any time.
- When the baby reach 21
years old, he/she can choose to extend the contract or terminate the contract.
*What happen to the cord
blood if they choose to terminate?*
Then I moved on to
understand more about the public Cord Blood Bank where the Cord Blood are
donated by willing parents, who have no intention of banking their baby's
Cord Blood for their own use.
In gist, here's how it works:
- Registration with the
Cord Blood Bank to sign the declaration form of your health status and family
history of any blood disorder.
- During birth, the
hospital would need submit the mother's blood
sample and the baby cord blood to the public cord blood bank.
- The cord blood bank
would do a lab test on the cord blood to ensure it is healthy and 'bankable'.
if yes, they would proceed to do a blood test from the mother's blood sample to
confirm the finding.
- After it is done, the
mother would be informed of the result and the donation process is considered
over.
Some Q&A that I
gathered from the public Cord Blood Bank consultant:
If the cord blood is
deemed as unhealthy, the family cannot retrieve back from the public cord blood
bank to be transferred to a private cord blood bank. It makes sense because the
cord blood would be useless if it cannot be accepted in the public cord blood
bank.
If the family needs
the cord blood, they can request to withdraw their own cord blood from the bank
- provided it is not taken up by other patients yet.
By the way, the public
Cord Blood Bank is accessible internationally too! A stem cell match is
not easy to find and the hospital may have to source for a suitable match from
other countries' cord blood bank if they cannot find it locally. This
means, someone from the other part of the world may be able to have his 2nd
lease of life if he managed to find his match from this public cord blood bank.
In addition, this
public cord blood bank has a stringent procedure to collect the cord blood. They do not accept transfer of cord blood
from private cord blood bank and from home birth. They only collect them fresh from the
hospital after birth.
This is what I had
concluded - the difference between private and public cord blood bank.
|
Private Cord Blood Bank
|
Public Cord Blood Bank
|
|
Get to reserve your
own cord blood for future needs
|
Not available for
own retention and it is make available for donation to other people
|
|
Subscription fee is
applicable
|
Not available since
it’s based on donation
|
|
When the contract
ended, the cord blood cannot be donated to the public cord blood bank
|
Not applicable
|
There’s one more thing
to note , the cord blood may not be suitable for your family members or relatives
in the event of complicated life threatening disease. Therefore, weighing the
difference between the 2, I decided to donate my cord blood with my country
public cord blood bank .(http://www.scbb.com.sg/).
Of course, I don't mean
that private cord blood bank is no good.Some families DO have a needs to
reserve their baby cord blood for some reason or another.
Do make a sound
decision by making good use of the cord blood - it may create miracle for
another person's life!
Check
out your local cord blood bank now! :)
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