How Donating Blood From The Umbilical Cord Can Save Lives

Donating tissue or blood from the umbilical cord can save a newborn’s life. But it can also help thousands of other people around the world, or even your own family.

Until a few years ago, hospital staff threw away the placenta and umbilical cord when a baby was born. But we now know that these tissues, especially the umbilical cord itself, are full of stem cells.

And stem cells are precious.  This is because they have characteristics that make them different from the rest of the cells that make up our bodies. Their main feature is their ability to produce different types of cells.

As mentioned, stem cells are the source from which tissues and organs in our body can regenerate. They are non-specialized cells that can self-renew and multiply.

Donating the blood from the umbilical cord is painless

The ideal time to obtain stem cells is just after a baby is born, but before the placenta comes after it.  Stem cells are present in our body throughout our lives. The moment of a baby’s birth is therefore not our only chance to harvest stem cells, but it is the best moment.

The stem cells that doctors can extract from the umbilical cord are free of infections and unaffected by other factors. We can say that these cells are as pure as the newborn baby.

Donating the blood from the umbilical cord is a painless process and you can do it right after delivery.

Once the baby is born, the medical team will cut the umbilical cord. At this point, the obstetrician draws blood from the umbilical cord. This is the only time in our lives that it is possible to harvest such a large amount of stem cells.

These stem cells from the blood in the umbilical cord can benefit patients suffering from bone marrow disorders. Stem cell transplants allow recipients to make new, healthy blood cells, which are essential for life.

Why is it so important to donate blood from the umbilical cord?

Stem cells from the umbilical cord can help to cure degenerative diseases. In addition, they have also been used for a number of years in the treatment of blood disorders such as leukemia.

Scientists in the United States and several European countries are conducting leading research in this field. They are currently working on research to use stem cells to regenerate intestinal tissue as well as other organs.

Donating blood from the umbilical cord can benefit many people.  It is for this reason that most developed countries maintain a register of voluntary donors. These registries contain data on people in all countries who are willing to donate tissue.

The organizations in charge of maintaining these registries are simultaneously searching for donors who are compatible with patients in need of transplants. Details about each donation are therefore coded and included in the database. Obviously, all this stored information is completely confidential.

Blood from the umbilical cord for transplantation

Blood obtained from the umbilical cord can be transplanted to patients around the world who need it. Furthermore, the only condition is that the donor and the recipient must be compatible.

Thanks to these ‘stem cell banks’, patients around the world now have access to a stock of more than 200,000 units of umbilical cord blood around the world. And this is why donating the umbilical cord is so important.

Once a compatible unit of umbilical cord blood is identified for a patient, the blood is shipped to the recipient’s country of residence. This means that both the patient and the donor do not have to travel.

Incidentally, the transplant procedure is the same all over the world. Therefore, the blood from the umbilical cord of a mother in Europe, a mother in the United States, Australia or any other country can help.

From this we can conclude that donating blood from the umbilical cord is a way to help people all over the world. The important thing is to work together to save lives in this way.