Have you heard of cord blood banking, cord blood stem cell banking, or perhaps umbilical cord blood banking. The term should probably be collection rather than banking. Anyway, it is the collection of cord blood that has got me ranting this time – with a little bit of a rave as well.

There is plenty of scientific evidence now to show that the harvesting of stem cells from the umbilical cord blood of a new born baby can be used to effectively treat certain illnesses. In Australia there has been a lot of controversy over the use of embryonic stem cells for research – from what I have read the stem cells from cord blood can also be used for research.

To date they have had varying success with the treatment of leukemia and other childhood diseases. With research who knows what the future may hold. We don’t know and we wont know unless we collect this blood and allow research to progress.

My rant is directed towards our local health services although from what I can gather, there are many places around the world were the same is true. We live around an hours drive from the nearest capital city. They collect blood donations, pathology specimens and other medical information but they will not collect cord blood to be sent off and processed. Why? They are not set up for it.

It takes about 5 minutes to insert a syringe and draw of the blood from the baby’s umbilical cord and store it for collection. The collected blood can then be sent off at the same time as all the samples. I think it is a small thing to ask when the potential benefits are huge.

Have you had your baby’s cord blood collected for stem cell harvesting and storage or use? Do you know about private collection for future use by your family? Cord blood stem cell banking is big business in the US when it comes to private use. For public use, there are far too few resources available.