Cord clamping and Stem cell banking/doning

You can read questions and answers all around the Internet about cord clamping and umbilical cord stem cell banking and/or donating.
In this blog I will always try to stick to what is scientifically known and perhaps even proven, which is not always the same as what common sense says.
Common sense implies that if the placenta transfusion to the newborn is complete, there won't be much blood blood left to bank och donate.
When it comes to research regarding delayed cord clamping and stem cell banking I do not know of any research done. There is an ongoing study at Karolinska hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, which I am involved in, looking at how many stem cell that are available after 1 minute delayed cord clamping and then how this affects iron stores at four months compared to immediate and delayed after 3 minutes clamping (that is compared to our earlier study published in the BMJ).
I will go through the recent research to be found in this area and return in a future blog post. It's an open question, and up the parents to judge and decide: do we want to ask to optimize the placental transfusion or the harvesting of stem cells? And as always to counsel their obstetrician and midwife.
My hope goes to the research of harvesting and enriching the umbilical stem cells. Perhaps in the future we are able to enrich those probably few stem cells left after a full placental transfusion, or we will be able to use other stem celks found in the placenta.
Then we could, as we at least say in Sweden, eat the cookie and still keep it.