As the use and benefits of Cord blood as a rich source of stem cells is being propagated and advertised, more and more research is being performed on many procedures related to cord blood like collection, storage, preservation, nature of gases in cord blood among other things.

These researches offer more and more insight about the manner in which cord blood can be used in later stages to cure various kinds of blood related afflictions. For a baby, the umbilical vein is the path of blood flow from the mother.

This cord blood transports the gases between the mother and the baby. It carries the oxygen that passes from the mother’s placenta to the baby. The cord blood also carries back carbon-di-oxide to the mother. Umbilical cord blood gases are analyzed for various contents.

The cord blood normally is expected to contain a good amount of gases like PCO2 and PO2 etc. The cord blood gases are also analyzed to find out their pH values, which provide information about various parameters like alkaline level and oxygen saturation etc.

Two types of cord blood gases are obtained and tested – these are umbilical arterial gases and umbilical venous gases. Great care has to be taken while collecting, transporting and storing these samples of cord blood gases for testing, as they cannot be used for testing, if do not satisfy certain strict eligibility criteria. The testing of cord blood gases is a very simple procedure and it takes about ten minutes.

Cord blood has been recognized as a good option for stem cell transplants when compared to bone marrow blood cells. Cord blood from a baby contains a lot of immature stem cells that can be stored for a long time in specialized containers and can be used later in transplants for the same person or even for an unrelated matching patient. The other advantage of cord blood cells is that they can grow into any type of blood cells.

Cord blood banks provide the required services for collecting, testing and preserving the cord blood. While public banks offer the services free of charge and make the collected blood available for anyone in need, private banks offer the option to reserve a cord blood for a particular person for his or her family needs .

This service is normally provided for a fee, although some private banks and even insurance companies, tend to provide this service free in case of family with history of blood related problems.