The month of July is national Cord blood awareness month. If you are like me, I have seen lots of commercials about cord blood, I know it is something to consider after the birth of your child but that is about all I knew. Since it is awareness month I decided to educate myself and share that with my readers.
What is cord blood?
Cord blood is the blood left in the umbilical cord after a baby is born. This blood can be used in medicine and medical research. This blood contains stem cells (https://blog.cordblood.com/2019/06/cord-blood-awareness-month-help-spread-the-word/).
What is a Stem Cell?
Stem cells are a type of cell that has the potential to turn into other kinds of cells. I like to think of stem cells like Eevee from Pokémon, Eevee is able to transform into umbreon, espeon, flareon, jolteon, vaporeon, leafeon, glaceon, or sylveon. Like Eevee. stem cells depend on what they are exposed to to change. Stemcells have a lot of potential (https://medlineplus.gov/stemcells.html).
The types of ways cord blood can be banked
- Allogeneic- A person receives cord blood from a public bank to treat an illness
- Autologous – A person receives their own cord blood from a family bank to treat an illness (https://parentsguidecordblood.org/en/diseases)
Be aware of your options when you have a baby, do your research, and most importantly make the choice that is best for you and your family.
For more information see-
https://parentsguidecordblood.org/en/diseases
https://parentsguidecordblood.org/en/diseases
blog.cordblood.com/2019/06/cord-blood-awareness-month-help-spread-the-word/