I just heard about umbilical cord blood banking. Two of my nieces are pregnant, and one of them is inducing on Feb 5.
Basically, they take 10-12 vials of blood from the umbilical cord and put it in a cryogenic freeze. The umbilical cord has stem cells in it, which are a perfect match for the kid. If something goes wrong, they can use this “stash” of stem cells to do all those cool sci-fi stem cell treatments that already exist & ones that are being invented now but we don’t even know about.
Imagine: your kid is 19 & (god forbid) is in a motorcycle crash with a spinal cord injury. They can use these perfectly matched stem cells (that won’t be rejected by the body) to repair the spinal cord.
Amazing, huh?
The umbilical cord blood banking costs about $1800 at collection & about $100 each year, but it is totally an insurance policy for your child. Now that I know about it, I’m raising awareness of it with every pregnant woman I know.
Labels: health