How Is Cord Blood Stored?

Video Transcript

"My name is Josie Minks and I'm a labor and delivery nurse in Austin, Texas and I'm going to talk to you about cord blood storage. A baby is born and the doctor clamps the cord and collects cord blood from the placenta and it is sent to a cord blood collection facility where it is separated from the stem cells and the other blood products and then the stem cells are frozen cryogenically, which means they are frozen in liquid nitrogen and to be used at a later time. And supposedly, the cord blood is able to be kept for forever, but cord blood collection has only been used since the seventies and so there haven't been many studies to determine how long cord blood can really be stored. But, supposedly forever and when it is needed, it is thawed and then used as appropriate and that is how cord blood collection is stored."