Before the delivery of the baby, the parents must choose whether they’ll harvest the baby’s umbilical cord blood. The procedure isn’t one routinely done at the deliver of a child. The parents need to plan for the procedure. It requires a specific kit from the cord-blood bank they select and notification of the medical team.
Blood supply to the fetus
Collecting umbilical cord blood is not necessarily a simple process but it usually doesn’t affect the baby or mother. The umbilical cord is the primary line of food via the blood supply from the placenta to the fetus, while it’s in the mother’s womb. At delivery, the doctor clamps a section of the umbilical cord close to the baby and places another clamp further down the umbilical cord. He then cuts the umbilical cord between the two clamps. This is normal procedure.
Just like any other vein, if you clamped it at one end, there would be blood remaining in the vein. The remaining blood is what the doctor or nurse collects. Since the doctor already severed the cord and separated the baby from it, there is no involvement of the child. At this point, the person collecting the blood begins the procedure, before the doctor delivers the placenta. While the potential for risk is very small, an overzealous doctor hoping to get as much blood as possible in the cord could clamp the cord too soon and cause low blood volume in the baby and therefore anemia.
Placenta & Umbilical cord are medical waste
The doctor or nurse unclamps the end of the umbilical cord and inserts a small tube into it to collect the blood it contains. If the collection process didn’t occur, the hospital considers the placenta and umbilical cord medical waste and discards in most cases. Sometimes the doctor or hospital staff takes samples or run tests on the placenta to check for abnormalities. Collecting the blood is just one extra step and occurs before the mother expels the placenta but after the doctors sever the cord from the baby.
In cases of caesarian section birth, the doctor has the welfare of the mother to consider first, before collecting the blood. However, the procedure is much the same once the surgeon sutures the mother. The primary difference between a natural birth blood collection and a C-section collection is the amount of blood available. C-sections normally result in collecting less blood from the cord.
Special blood bank for cord blood
The samples collected in the delivery room either are in syringes or put in bags. A medical courier service then takes the blood to a special blood bank for cord blood. The bank assigns a number to the blood sample for identification and then stores it in frozen nitrogen for later use.
After the umbilical cord-blood collection takes place, the doctor or nurse puts the blood into either bags or syringes. A medical courier then takes it to the cord-blood bank. Once there, the cord bank gives the sample an identifying number. The bank then separates the stem cells from the rest of the blood and stores those cells in liquid nitrogen. The cryogenically stored cells remain until either the baby needs them or the family or adult child donates the cells to a relative or other person. Since the volume is so small, normally only children and young adults benefit from its use. There are not enough stem cells to complete a successful adult transplant. However, the future research and use of stem cells may dictate differently.
Viability of the stem cells
Of course, there are other considerations once the blood is in storage. There are expenses not only for the procedure but also for the storage. There are also other questions regarding the viability of the cells over longer periods. Since the research started in the 70s, scientists are relatively certain that the stem cells remain viable for at least forty years (in theory forever) but there’s no clad iron proof this is true. Even the potential of bankruptcy of the facility is a consideration when looking far into the future.
Right now doctors stand in differing camps when it comes to the collection of the umbilical cord blood. Some doctors don’t feel the expense is worth it if there is no potential for a serious disease. Other doctors look to the future for new technology based on the use of stem cells. The collection of umbilical cord blood is advisable for children conceived via in vitro fertilization or adopted children due to the difficulty of finding a match for bone marrow transplants.