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Slideshow: Crash course in cord blood stem cells
Banking your baby’s umbilical cord blood stem cells is a smart and simple way to help plan for your family’s future health. But what are cord blood stem cells, and how do you “bank” them, exactly? Here’s a breakdown of the basics of cord blood banking.
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Stem cells – The building blocks of life
Stem cells are what our bodies are made of. They’re found in our organs, tissues, immune system, and blood. With the ability to regenerate and develop into different types of cells, these little powerhouse cells can help repair damaged or diseased cells. No other cell in the body has the natural ability to do so. Pretty cool, right?
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How is cord blood used in medicine?
The use of stem cells in medicine isn’t new. In fact, they’ve been used in transplant medicine for over 30 years, to repair or replace damaged cells and in many cases save lives! And today stem cells are being used in clinical trials in an effort to help kids with conditions, like autism and cerebral palsy. Talk about superhero cells!
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Why umbilical cord blood?
The blood in your baby’s umbilical cord blood is packed with stem cells! Stem cells can be collected from bone marrow and peripheral blood, but it’s a difficult and painful process. Collecting valuable stem cells from umbilical cord blood is the easiest (and pain-free for mom and baby) method. Plus, as “young” cells, they can be more effective when used in medicine. ViaCord has been helping families collect and save their baby’s cord blood stem cells for over 25 years!
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Another benefit of cord blood?
In addition to being a rich source of stem cells, your baby’s cord blood is a wealth of health information! ViaCord can analyze cord blood to determine a baby’s risk of developing celiac disease in the future or perform genetic testing on cord blood to identify genes associated with child-hood onset conditions. This information can help families make informed decisions related to their health.
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Collecting cord blood stem cells
The only time you can collect cord blood is minutes after your baby is born. The collection process is painless for mom and baby and won’t interfere with your birth time or bonding time with your little one. Ideally, you’ll want to arrange for banking umbilical cord blood cells sometime before week 34 of your pregnancy. With ViaCord, it’s easy to make this happen. They’ll send you a blood cord collection kit to give your medical professional when you go into labor.
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The collection kit
After your baby’s cord blood is collected, ViaCord picks the kit up from your hospital and gets it to their FDA-registered processing and storage lab. There they extract the stem cells and store them in a multi-compartment bag, giving you more options and flexibility if you ever need to use your stem cells.
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Thinking ahead
Planning for cord blood banking now can help you plan for your family’s future health. With over 25 years of experience, great customer service, and a commitment to help families get the most out of cord blood banking. ViaCord is the preferred cord blood banking service of many mamas, not to mention OB-GYNs. Did we mention Ovia Families get an Exclusive ~ 50% savings on ViaCord? Tap below to request a free info kit.
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