Cord blood Cord blood Cord blood (umbilical cord blood) is blood that remains in the placenta and in the attached umbilical cord after childbirth. Cord blood is collected because it contains stem cells, which can be used to treat hematopoietic and genetic disorders. Cord blood is composed of all the elements found in whole blood - red blood cells, white blood cells, plasma, platelets. Compared to whole blood some differences in the blood composition exist, for example, cord blood contains higher numbers of natural killer cells, lower absolute number of T-cells and a higher proportion of immature T-cells. However, the interest in
Umbilical cord outside of the hospital and an emergency medical technician (EMT) clamps and cuts the cord, a longer segment up to in length is left attached to the newborn. The remaining umbilical stub remains for up to 10 days as it dries and then falls off. A Cochrane review in 2013 came to the conclusion that delayed cord clamping (between one and three minutes after birth) is "likely to be beneficial as long as access to treatment for jaundice requiring phototherapy is available". In this review delayed clamping, as contrasted to early, resulted in no difference in risk of severe maternal