Belvidere Chiropractic Center Belvidere New Jersey Family Chiropractor Dr Jon Heins

What is Cord Blood Banking ?

Cord Blood Awareness MonthLast month I posted a video: How Chiropractic Care Can Benefit You During Pregnancy and since July is National Cord Blood Awareness month I thought I’d take this opportunity to write this post about Cord Blood Banking.

Sponsored by Parent’s Guide to Cord Blood National Cord Blood Awareness month’s mission is to educate parents with accurate and current information about cord blood medical research and cord blood banking options.

What is Cord Blood?

The term ‘cord blood’ is used for blood that is drawn from the umbilical cord and the placenta after a baby is born. Up until recently this afterbirth was discarded as medical waste. Cord blood contains stem cells which may be frozen for later use in medical therapies, such as stem cell transplantation or regenerative medicine.

What are Cord Blood Stem Cells Used For?

The umbilical cord and placenta are rich sources of stem cells. These are different from both the embryonic stem cells in a fertilized egg or any stem cells obtained from a child or adult person. The stem cells in cord blood can grow into blood and immune system cells, as well as other types of cells. Today a growing percentage of stem cell transplant patients who need a transplant of blood-forming stem cells for over 70 diseases such as leukemia are receiving cord blood and research is developing new therapies where stem cells help the body to repair itself, called regenerative medicine. Currently clinical trials for Cerebral Palsy and Type 1 Diabetes are being conducted using cord blood.

Your Two Options for Cord Blood Banking.

There are two types of cord blood banking Private (a.k.a. Family) Banking and Public Bank Donating. In private banks, parents pay the bank to preserve the cord blood for family use. The family owns the cord blood and can decide how it is used. When you donate to a public bank, you sign away all ownership of the cord blood.

If you are pregnant I encourage you to check out my previous video post How Chiropractic Care Can Benefit You During Pregnancy and urge you to also consider either public or private cord blood banking.

I am blessed to have 2 healthy children and with both of their births my wife and I decided to store their cord blood privately through Life Bank USA.

This decision was based on:

  • They are the only ones that currently offer cord blood and placenta stem cell banking.
  • Since we reside in New Jersey and they are located in Cedar Knolls they are local so in the unfortunate event we need the stem cells they are immediately available and do not have to be shipped across the country.

These decisions were a personal ones for us and you have to choose what options are best for your individual circumstances. However if you are pregnant please consider either public or private cord blood banking. If you need a Public and/or Private Cord Blood Bank including Life Bank USA see Parent’s Guide to Cord Blood’s locator HERE.

I hope you enjoyed this post and it helped you increase your awareness of what cord blood banking is, what the benefits of cord blood banking are, and what your options for cord blood banking are.

As always, I welcome any of your thoughts and would be glad to help answer any of your further questions you may have.

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Welcome to Belvidere Chiropractic Center, I'm Dr. Jon P. Heins Your Family Chiropractor. Where Generations of Your Family Are Cared For By Our Family. Serving All Generations of Your Family For Over 15 Years Now!Read More About Us »
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