The flip side of cord blood banking

Wrote to ST Forum on cord blood banking. Yesterday a Mr Kong from ST Forum called me while I was at KKWCH attending to Ning. He wanted to clarify the point about cord blood being 'waste'. I was a bit distracted by Ning's situation and my battery level was low so I tried to explain as best I could. Mr Kong was very nice about it. He said he would need to make some changes but would try to be faithful to my message and try his best to do justice to it.

So the letter was published in today's straits times. Reading it, I can't find any portion that is significantly changed. Here it is:

"I REFER to the article, 'Parents pin hopes on cord blood banks' (ST, Oct 12), on the rising number of parents who harvest their babies' cord blood.

As a mother and a childbirth educator, I feel that it is important that parents weigh carefully the risks and benefits of harvesting their baby's cord blood.

Cord blood should not be considered as 'waste', something to be thrown away if not harvested for storage in a cord-blood bank.

While it may be standard practice today for the umbilical cord to be clamped and cut immediately after birth, not many parents know that there are valid physiological reasons for leaving the cord alone until it has stopped pulsating and the baby's pulmonary and respiratory systems are working well.

However, clamping and cutting the cord immediately after birth is necessary for cord-blood harvesting. This action takes away 60-150ml of blood, about one third to half the total blood volume in a normal baby.

There are studies that show that babies whose cords were not cut immediately at birth show higher blood pressure, better oxygen levels and higher haemoglobin levels than their counterparts whose cords were clamped and cut immediately.

Delayed clamping, even for only two minutes, has been shown to boost iron stores in babies as late as six months after birth.

This is information that parents should be told if they are considering cord-blood banking. In the interest of allowing parents to make an informed choice, doctors should give them a complete picture of what it means to harvest cord blood.

Parents should consider not only the merits of each facility for cord-blood banking but also if it is even necessary or in their baby's best interests to clamp and cut the cord early just to harvest cord blood."

It's something which I have been saying for the longest time and I'm glad it's finally out. I hope more parents will now be aware that there are alternatives and will start asking questions. Hopefully doctors will also read it and re-think active management policies for managing third stage labour.... Fat hope huh?? sigh.