Molly Nash's life was saved by a stem cell transplant from cells obtained from her new brother's placenta. Baby Adam never received a shot or was ever in any danger during the donation of cells to his sister.

"The stem cells came from the placenta. Typically, the placenta is considered medical garbage, yet donating cord blood can save lives. When you receive prenatal care, you should ask if you can donate the stem blood from your placenta," Molly and Adam's mother, Lisa Nash, said.

Stem cells are found primarily in three sources: bone marrow, peripheral blood and umbilical cord blood. Cord blood is rich with stem cells. The stem cells can differentiate into other cells types including bone, heart, muscle and nerve. It is believed that newborn cord blood stem cells are proliferative and less likely to be contaminated with viruses than adult stem cells.

Many nurses and parents are not aware that they may have a choice about saving the umbilical cord after the baby is born. Cord blood can be banked by the family at a cost of about $1,000 for processing, a $300 enrollment fee and a $100 annual storage fee for possible future personal use by the infant or a family member.

In some parts of the country, cord blood can be donated at no charge to a cord blood registry or for use by other families or for research. To date, many siblings have received cord blood transplants. By saving cord blood for possible use or by donating cord blood to a cord blood bank, lives can be saved.

"There is controversy about using embryos for stem cell research, but there are no ethical issues involved in cord blood," said Sandra Wolf, MSN, RN, former cord blood educator for the Cord Blood Registry. "If we could bank everybody's cord blood, there would be no need for research on embryos.

"When using cord blood, there's no pain involved, no risk to mom or baby. It just takes a couple of minutes. Research is showing more and more uses for cord blood. Who knows what they are going to find for uses in the next 20 years."

Donating cord blood is not a complicated process. "The parents typically know in advance that they want to save the blood and bring a collection kit to the delivery," Wolf said. "All the nurses have to do is collect the blood from mom and the placenta. The mother then takes the kit back to her room and has it sent overnight to the cord blood bank."

In addition to parents saving cord blood for personal use, the National Institutes of Health has numerous studies being performed using cord blood stem cells for research. One study sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute is evaluating whether unrelated donor umbilical cord blood stem and progenitor cell units are a clinically acceptable alternative to bone marrow transplantation.

Contact Carol Lindsay at carol@lindsay.net.