Photo courtesy of Nadia Phaneuf
Cord Blood Baking Reviews HQ provides information to help you understand blood cord banking and to help answer any questions you may have. In this article, we explain the cord blood banking collection and preservation processes.
Cord blood, also known as umbilical cord blood, is the blood found in the placenta and the umbilical cord after a baby is born. Cord blood contains hematopoietic cells which can be used to treat genetic and immune disorders, leukemia, Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and Sickle Cell anemia. These days, some parents are donating or storing their children’s cord blood as an insurance against unforeseen diseases. Cord Blood banking, which is the process of collecting and storing this precious blood, is divided into several processes.
Cord Blood Collection
Collecting this very essential blood is done with a painless and simple procedure that can be performed by a midwife or obstetrician. Collection happens 10 minutes after the baby is born, when the umbilical cord has been cut and clamped. The birthing process isn’t altered in any way and cord blood can be collected even after a C-section. The blood can be collected two ways – the syringe method and the bag method. The Syringe Method, which is clinically known as the closed technique, uses the same technique as to how blood is taken from patients. A needle inserted into the cord is used to draw out blood and which is then placed in a collection bag. In the Bag Method, the umbilical cord is elevated, which causes the blood to drain into a collection bag. After the cord blood has been collected, it should be immediately shipped to a cord bank for storage and the right temperature should always be maintained.
Cord Blood Processing
After the collection, the baby’s cord blood will then be processed depending on where it will be stored. Some cord blood banks remove the red cells to minimize a reaction to incompatible blood types and to reduce the sample size for easier storage. However, other banks believe that cord blood should be stored whole since the less it’s handled the more viable cells can be retrieved in the future.
Cord Blood Preservation
After being processed, the blood is then frozen or cryo-preserved. A chemical is added to the cord blood to ensure that the cells will survive and remain viable even after the freezing process. Chemicals like dimethyl sulfoxide, hetastarch and pentastarch are used, after which they can then be stored in either a cryo-vial or a cryo-bag. Cryo-vials are typically used but studies have shown that cryo-bags are safer. Liquid nitrogen might seep through the vials’ screw top lids, exposing cells to contaminants. However, most companies still use vials so it’s important that parents consider this before deciding on the storage facility they will choose. Whichever containers are used, the cord blood will then be cooled slowly to somewhere between -90 to -130 degrees Celsius. It will then be placed inside a nitrogen tank kept at -196 degrees Celsius or -328 Farenheit. The nitrogen can be in liquid or vapor form. The standard these days is for the cord blood to be kept in vapor storage to stop the contamination that might happen if all vials are bathed in the same liquid nitrogen.
Summary
We hope you find the information regarding Cord Blood Collection and Preservation useful. We encourage you to share your experiences and any thoughts you may have by adding to the discussion and leaving comments. Our aim is to provide the most accurate and useful information possible for those considering Cord Blood Banking. Thank you for reading our article and we hope you find the rest of the information provided on Blood Cord Banking Reviews HQ helpful as well.
