Like Lucy Cornes from She Shopped, a lot of parents across Australia don’t know the advantages of storing a baby’s cord blood and tissue at birth.
As a mother of a child with complex health issues, Lucy is trying to raise awareness so other parents don’t miss out on this one-off opportunity.
But what exactly is cord blood and tissue and how is it used?
Cord blood is the blood that remains in a baby’s umbilical cord and placenta after the baby has been born and the cord has been cut. Cord tissue is the tissue that fills the baby’s cord around the blood vessels.
Your baby’s cord blood and tissue contain a diverse mixture of cells including stem cells. Stem cells are powerful, unique cells that are the building blocks of our body, and they have the ability to create our organs, blood, tissue and the immune system.
Cord blood stem cell transfusions are being used now as an alternative to bone marrow for life-threatening conditions such as blood, immune system and metabolic disorders. Worldwide, cord blood has been used in 30,000+ transplants in the treatment of nearly 80 diseases such as leukaemia.
Not only are there treatments happening now but there is also scientific research evaluating how cord blood stem cells may provide new therapies in the future for a broad number of diseases for which there is no effective treatment today.
Your baby’s stem cells are a perfect match for your child, and may be a match for siblings and family members. These precious cells can only be collected at birth for potential future use; otherwise they will be discarded as medical waste.
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This post is sponsored by Cell Care Australia. You can read Lucy’s story on the Cell Care Australia website.