This article addresses the need for childbirth educators, as the first line of information for parents, to understand procedures related to umbilical cord blood banking and potential uses of umbilical cord blood and cells to answer questions or discuss the topic with expectant parents. The article points out the need for more awareness in childbirth educators of the topic of umbilical cord blood since most expectant parents are unaware of the topic unless they know someone who has been involved in a stem cell procedure.
The majority of expectant parents are largely unaware of the benefits that umbilical cord blood can have in treating many conditions that may develop in the child’s future. Most people know what little they hear on the news and many misperceptions exist regarding the number and types of potential uses and the cost of banking umbilical cord blood.
When first turning to the literature the educator learned that most expectant parents are not informed about umbilical cord blood banking unless they ask. The second thing she learned was that the information provided when it was provided came directly from private facilities and physicians involved in banking umbilical cord blood and so the information was largely bias.
After reviewing the literature, the author gathered important information about umbilical cord blood, its potential uses and the process of storing it. Umbilical cord blood is important in that it has 10 times the amount of stem cells than adult bone marrow. Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that are the foundation for the tissue and organ cells of the body. Because they are not specialized, they can be used for different types of transplants and procedures all over the body. The four main types of conditions stem cells can be used to treat are cancers, blood disorders, congenital metabolic disorders, and immunodeficiencies.
Advantages of the use of stem cells include lowered risk of infectious diseases, the umbilical cord blood is easy to collect and store and they are less likely than other cells to be rejected after transplantation. Disadvantages include that it is harder and takes longer to determine whether stem cell transplants are working compared with bone marrow transplants, there are few ways the stem cells can be used in the future so it is unlikely the child will ever use them raising questions about costs vs. benefits and no one knows for sure how long frozen stem cells remain viable as there has not been enough people who have used them to conduct research.
The three types of banks are also discussed. Private banks are for-profit banks that are for use by the families only, and charge high fees for collecting, storing and accessing the umbilical cord blood. Public banks are for donations by families, and the blood is stored and made available much like a blood bank such that the donor family is no more likely to get the blood they donated than anyone else. Direct donation banks are a combination of private and public donation centers.
Works Cited
Waller-Wise, Renece. Umbilical Cord Blood: Information for Childbirth Educators. Journal of
Perinatal Education, 20(1). 2011. Web. 9 June 2014.
