An expert consultant Obstetrician has asked mothers to refrain from insisting on saving cord blood in cord blood banks.
Umbilical cord blood rich in stem cells is collected and kept in umbilical cord blood banks for possible re use for the baby in its lifetime if and when required in treatment of certain medical conditions like leukemia where it can be life saving. However an expert in this field, Dr. Leroy Edozien from the St Mary's Hospital in Manchester is of the opinion that very often this cord blood may not come to be of any use and the process of collecting it during routine labor often becomes a hassle and compromises on proper care in maternity wards.Many folks prefer cord blood in situations where blood transfusion is required as it is known to be a safer option and also more affordable. There are commercial companies which deal with personal cord blood banking services for a whopping fee of 2,784 pounds, which is not recommended by many organizations like the Royal College of Obstetricians, and Gynecologists (RCOG) who point out an obvious lack of scientific base and umpteen logistical anomalies that creep in for NHS providers.
The chances of using cord blood later in the life time of an individual before the age of twenty is as dismally low as 1/20,000- 1/37,000 .The contamination or mismatched labeling can also spiral into legal implications.
Such logistic problems are done away with in cord blood donations done to public blood banks which are manned and monitored by experts who collect it and disburse it straight away to recipients who have no fuss as to who the donor should be and therefore such voluntary donations should be encouraged in the opinion of experts.
Source-Medindia
MST
