When Zach and I found out we were pregnant with our first child four years ago, we did a lot of research! How long do babies eat for? How many ounces do they eat at a time? What type of diapers are the best on the market? How can we make sure our baby sleeps through the night. We became so wrapped up in how to make sure our little one was going to be healthy, happy and feel secure as we ventured into parenthood.
One of the best decisions we did make both with Lily and our now 11 week old son Landon was preserving their stem cells when they were newborns. Why is this so important? It can help give your child the ability to use his or her own cells for potential future applications. It helps to preserve your own baby's cells giving them access to their own cells for potential next generation medical treatments and it also is amazing for research to help with treatment for various cancers, blood, immune and metabolic disorders.
There are a few ways for patients to get blood cells like the umbilical and placenta or bone marrow but cord blood is much easier to match with patient and because it's gathered during birth from the umbilical cord, it's a painless procedure! It was something that we felt was important to our children, to their future and patients they could help along the way if needed. After having Lily we knew that we would want to try to have a sibling for her and we were lucky enough to have our sweet boy Landon a few years later. I know that Lily's stem cells have a 25% chance of being a perfect genetic math and a 50% chance of being a partial genetic match for her brother thanks to us banking her cord blood so she's truly helping even our immediate family members.
While many cord blood banks can be costly when you choose a private bank, we decided to choose the public bank because it was free. When we were going through the process at my delivery for both children, the nurses helped to answer all our questions and concerns when being asked to store/donate their cord blood. I always felt assured and never pressured that we were doing the right thing for everyone when choosing this route. July is Cord Blood awareness so how are you sharing this with your friends and family members?
How do you spread Cord Blood Awareness to family and friends?
