Choosing to Bank Cord Blood on Baby On The Way - Winnipeg - Baby Products, Baby Clothing, Baby Resources, Pregnancy Forums, Baby, Babies, Newborns, Expecting Resources

Until my wife and I were expecting early last year, I had never heard of cord blood, or for that matter, cord blood banking. Friends of ours gave birth earlier this year, and that was the first we’d heard of it. They had decided to pay for the procedure, which involved taking cord blood stem cells from the umbilical cord at birth and storing them in the event of future illness. These stem cells are important because they can be used as an alternative to bone marrow in transplants for children with certain types of cancer. Upon further reflection, it seemed like a wise choice, and my wife and I decided to pursue it as well.

On the surface it meant we had some sort of insurance policy should our child become ill in the future, insurance for what exactly, I did not know, but we somehow felt safer knowing the blood was there. Our son Hayden was born in September and we didn’t think twice about requesting a collection kit and paying the fee for the cord blood to be stored. Until sitting down to write this article I still didn’t really know about all of the benefits or reasons to do it. My hope now is to shed some light on the subject for families considering this as an option.

There are a number of companies that offer the service of cryogenically freezing cord blood samples. You will need to do some research to find a company you feel comfortable with, and are satisfied with their fees for collection and storage. Once you’ve chosen a service provider you will need to order their collection kit and complete a rigorous set of medical forms that relate to your personal and family medical history.

If you do choose to use a cord blood bank, make sure you start this process early. You do not want to be filling out these forms while in labour. In some cases, your hospital may not have an emergency collection kit on hand from your desired company, so you’ll need your collection kit a few days in advance.

Once the forms are complete and the collection kit obtained, a nurse will be able to complete the process of collecting the sample. The process involves collecting an adequate amount of cord blood, as well as a sample of the mother’s blood. In addition, all of the vials and containers must be properly labeled and put in the correct self-addressed courier packages to get them to the storage facility.

With the arrival of a new baby moments earlier, following all of the steps to properly collect the sample was the last thing I wanted to attend to. Luckily, our nurse had done it before and took most of the pressure off of us in ensuring it was completed properly.

Costs involved in collecting the sample and storing it included fees for the collection kit itself (an envelope filled with vials, tubes, labels, and temperature sensitive envelopes), courier costs to have the sample picked up, monthly storage fees for the safe storage of the blood, and administration costs. Add to that the choice of storing for 15 years or 18 years (of course at a higher cost for the latter) and we were looking at about $2500.00. Depending on the service provider you select, some of these fees can be paid monthly or you can potentially save some money by paying up front.

Umbilical cord blood has all of the same components as the normal blood that flows through your body, with one unique exception. Umbilical cord blood happens to be full of hematopoietic stem cells, which are the same cells found in bone marrow. Hematopoietic stem cells are the parent cells which create all of a person's blood cells. According to the websites of the companies offering this service, eight years of clinical studies have demonstrated that cord blood transplantation is an acceptable alternative to bone marrow transplantation.

For those parents who do not want to store their baby's cord blood for their own family to use, consider donating your sample to a public cord blood bank such as Alberta Cord Blood Bank (Edmonton), Victoria Angel Registry of Hope (Toronto) or HemaQuebec (Montreal). Donated samples will be used in research or may be stored for other sick people to use.

Stem cells are a hot topic right now. You may have seen Michael J. Fox on television fighting to advance stem cell research in the U.S. Wikipedia’s definition of stem cells includes the notion that in the future these cells are promising candidates for a role in therapies and cures for any number of ailments and diseases. These cells are already proving invaluable for the treatment of many serious diseases including leukemia, metabolic disorders, immune disorders, bone marrow failure and some genetic disorders.

Knowing we have a concentration of our son’s stem cells on hand for any use in the future definitely provides peace of mind. In the next 10 years, stem cells could be the answer to any of his health-related issues, however at this point no one knows what the future life-saving potential of cord blood could be.

Here are some links to resources on the topic and companies offering the service:

If you have banked cord blood with a provider of this service, please leave a comment below - let our other users know who you used, what city you're in, and whether you were happy with the service!

Umbilical cords are routinely thrown away every day. Most parents don’t realize that the blood left in the umbilical cord contains stem cells that have been used successfully to treat more than 70 different diseases including leukemia and lymphoma. Gradually more Canadian parents are choosing to store their baby’s cord blood stem cells for their own family’s use at a company like “Cells for Life” or they are donating it for research or for others to use at “Victoria Angel Registry of Hope”.

Ethics & Religion: Unlike the debate surrounding the use of embryonic stem cells, there are no ethical or religious issues associated with the collection/ use of cord blood stem cells. All faiths accept cord blood stem cells as an ethical treatment (except Jehovah Witness who object to the use of all blood products).

Parents Have Choices: Parents can choose to donate their child’s cord blood to a public cord blood bank like Victoria Angel Registry of Hope in Toronto. The donated samples are dedicated to research or are stored for other people to use for medical treatment. Pre-registration is required prior to 34 weeks of pregnancy.

Alternatively, parents may choose to store their child’s cord blood for their own family to use in the future should the need arise. This process is very simple. Parents register with Cells for Life in Toronto and are provided with a collection kit that they take to the delivery room. After the baby is born and the umbilical cord is cut, a health professional collects the cord blood using the kit. “The procedure takes less than five minutes and there is no risk or discomfort to the mother or baby” states Obstetrician Dr. Michael Virro. The kit is shipped back to the laboratory where the stem cells are separated from the rest of the blood, carefully frozen and stored. Parents pay for the kit and initial processing (three installments of $300) then pay an annual storage fee of approximately $125 per year. Although Cells for Life can accept new clients within a few days of the delivery, clients should receive their collection kits much earlier in case early labour begins.

Uses: These remarkable cells have been used thousands of times to successfully treat over 70 different diseases. In Japan, more than 80% of all transplants include cord blood stem cells and in the USA, they are used in more than 50% of all transplants. These cells have also been used following intensive chemotherapy or radiation therapy in cancer treatment. Research is directed toward use in Heart disease, Cerebral Palsy, Stroke, Diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis and Spinal Cord injuries. The stem cells can be used for the baby or for relatives because an exact match is not required (as is the case with bone marrow transplants).

In 2001, Patrizia Durante was pregnant when a routine prenatal test showed that she had leukemia. Her baby’s cord blood was stored. Patrizia endured 213 blood transfusions, 9 bone marrow biopsies and chemotherapy. After a two-month remission, her leukemia was back. Doctors searched for a matching bone marrow donor but none could be found. When doctors told her that she would die, Patrizia reminded them that they could use the cord blood. A five-minute transfusion of the cord blood was all it took. Within several weeks, her blood showed signs of improvement. Patrizia is now cured and her 8-year old daughter is a happy, healthy girl.