The scientists from all around the world today fully acknowledge the importance of umbilical cord. This is the reason that the cord that was earlier considered as waste and used to be discarded is now being preserved. Scientists now ask parents to donate cord blood so that it can be used for the treatment of several diseases for their child. The baby cord blood is preserved in the blood banks especially made for this purpose. Recently, a new bank has been opened in Melbourne that would be operating on a large scale.

These banks are generally of two types – private owned and public. This recently opened institution is privately owned. Privately owned cord banks are those that are run either by a private organization or an individual. Such institutions collect the blood regardless of any medical reason and they also charge fixed prices. According to an estimate, this new establishment will charge about three thousand dollars for the storage of blood stem cells up to a period of eighteen years. Peter Littlewood, Cell Care Australia Chief Executive said that the stem cells present in the umbilical cord blood have the potential to cure several diseases.

The cells obtained from these can be used to determine the cure for diseases such as Cerebral Palsy. The main benefit of carrying umbilical cord storage is because it possesses a large quantity of cells. Among these, it also contains some stem cells which have already proved their effectiveness for many disorders and thus hold high value for the healthy future. Under this recently opened Melbourne bank of cord blood, the cells will be available only for private use. They will not be distributed to anyone who is in need, not exactly like the publicly owned facilities. Under the public cord blood banking system such banks run their operations under the government.

There are no charges for the collection and further preservation of the umbilical cord. The blood donated for the storage in the public banks is sent to the general database. A major disadvantage of this system is that there are fewer chances to find a match of stem cells at the time of emergency. The private banks are just like insurance for the new born and family members. This is one of the major differences between these two types of banks where private provide more security as compared to publicly owned banks. If any person wants to go for umbilical cord blood donation, then they will surely feel secure to donate it to private banks.

The main reason behind it is these facilities provide efficient services of storage of cord blood and further preserving the individual sample for the use of concerned person. While looking for the cord blood in public bank, it has to be made sure that there is perfect match between the HLA antigens of the recipient and donor body. When we, compare cord blood banks one will find that with the opening of a private bank operating on large scale, more families would be doing insurance for their child’s health.