Life is a gift from our creator and as such it should be given with utmost care and must be preserved to the fullest. Life starts at birth of a baby and with the baby are inherent parts such as umbilical cord and placenta which in the past were considered as not important and were just thrown away.

Recently it has been found that these two components are rich sources of stem cells. Cord blood contains hematopoietic stem cells, progenitor cells which can form red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Cord blood stem cells have been used to treat over 80 diseases to date, including leukemia, cancers and blood disorders, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and sickle cell anemia. Over 8,000 cord blood stem cell transplants have been performed to date.

Cord blood banking is a facility which stores umbilical cord blood for future use. Both private and public cord blood banks have developed since the mid to late 1990 in response to the potential for cord blood transplants in treating diseases of the blood and immune systems. Public banks accept donations to be used for anyone in need. Unlike private cord blood banking, public cord blood banking is supported by the medical community. However, there are very strict regulations which public banks need to follow in order to enable the donated units to be added to a registry.

Generally an expectant mother interested in donation should contact the bank before the 34the week of pregnancy. Once the blood is donated, it loses all identifying information after a short period of initial testing. Families are not able to retrieve their own blood after it has been donated, but it is very unlikely that they would be able to use the sample themselves.

The cord blood stem cell units are processed and depleted or red blood cells and then cryopreserved in liquid nitrogen tanks at -196 degrees Celsius. Cord blood banking costs US$2,950 to collect and process the stem cell units and then US$225 per year for annual storage fees.

Cord banking in Boston encourages women who wish to donate their baby’s cord blood and who will be delivering their babies at any of Boston’s famous “hub” hospitals can expect to privately store their baby’s cord blood with the commercial companies. The New England Cord Blood Bank, Inc. (NECBB) is a private cord blood processor and storage company in Boston. It has the state-of-the-art facility to process, test, verify, cryopreserve, and store blood collected from the umbilical cord in their in-house laboratory.