Banking umbilical cord blood is simple and painless, and it could save your child’s life.

“The Scarborough Hospital delivers more than 5,200 babies each year. We want our expectant families to know the value of umbilical cord blood banking,” says Barbara Milana Scott, Patient Care Director of the Maternal Newborn and Child Care Program at The Scarborough Hospital.

Canada’s stem cell registry is predominantly Caucasian. In fact, 82.7 per cent of registered stem cell donors are Caucasian.

“Our hospital serves an ethnically diverse community. Two-thirds of the Scarborough population are visible minorities and we feel it is important that our expectant parents know their options,” says Barbara. “We have a large Chinese and South Asian population and those groups are severely under-represented in the national registry, meaning finding a stem cell match in those communities is very difficult.”

The Scarborough Hospital has partnered with Insception Cord Blood Program to provide education, information and umbilical cord blood banking for families delivering at the General and Birchmount campuses of The Scarborough Hospital.

Barbara shares some reasons why parents should consider banking umbilical cord blood:

1. Banking umbilical cord blood is a gift that could save your child’s life.
2. If your child becomes ill and requires a stem cell transplant, his or her own banked cord blood provides the best match, with no risk of rejection.
3. If a related family member becomes ill and requires a stem cell transplant, a related donor is more likely to be a match.
4. Unlike harvesting bone marrow, harvesting umbilical cord blood is not painful.
5. Banked umbilical cord blood has been used in the treatment of over 75 life-threatening diseases, including a wide range of cancers, genetic diseases, immune system deficiencies and blood disorders. Stem cell transplants are also being used to treat conditions such as Type 1 diabetes and cerebral palsy.
6. International stem cell registries are predominately Caucasian, meaning non-Caucasians have more difficulty finding a match.