Stem cell storage - your baby's ultimate health insurance?

Re: Save Baby's Umbilical Cord For Future

I believe that the Goverment and NGO's can promote the need for Public stem cell banks. The future of medicne is much dependant on the Stem cells, So i think It would be worth saving more of this kind which would be live saving of many human kind suffering from some incurable diseases excerpt for stem cell based treatment. Please pen in your thoughts on this topic......

 

Re: Save Baby's Umbilical Cord For Future

Sorry to intrude on your thread... I consider it unethical to save stem cells publicly or privately as anyway you have no clue who comes in contact with them and anyone can access and be using it for any number of purposes besides the obvious of saving your baby's life... moreover where do we stop once we start playing God???
Anyway that's just my thinking... but as a scientist/researcher I'm definitely glad to see science and technology move in leaps and bounds.

-L.

 

Re: Save Baby's Umbilical Cord For Future

Hello all...

Thank you sunkan for starting this topic. Its a new concept for all of us. I am in my second trimester with my first baby. I have been thinking on stem cell bank also. I live in US and get information in mail about Viacord or Bloodcord bank all the time. I havn't researched on these banks yet, but seems these two agencies are quite popular in US.

As lakshmi mentioned that there are public and private bank, which I am not aware of. I would like to do more research on it, before I make a decission. My husband and I, we surly are looking for this option. Wonder if anybody from IL's has registerd in India or abroad with these banks/organization yet and what are their experiences?

Can someone explain more about the public and private bank? Please post more about these banks, how to check and what information we need to know before we registered with those organizations. How many weeks before you deliver the baby you can registered?

Thanks and best regards.

 

Re: Save Baby's Umbilical Cord For Future

hai friends,
to-day i read in TOI that the japanese have had a breakthrough that the mensus blood can help with the stem cells needed for heart disease so i think we will be moving in many fields too, as these cells are available in skin to produce children and so on the medical field is bringing out a lot many things for people to benefit, who take them help their children in future..and the rest of us are like us who never had such facility aren't we living?..sunkan

 

Re: Save Baby's Umbilical Cord For Future

Hi Amicable,

Congratulations for you are going to be a mom soon.

This stem cell research is ethical or not,is a controversial topic and much heated debate is still going on.

I think you can have more info from the address and mail id given below. I took the address from a website.
California Cryobank Stem Cell Services, Inc.
11915 La Grange Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90025
Phone: 800-400-3430
Fax: 310-315-0472
Email: hpc@cryobank.com

Regarding the selection of bank, I hope this site helps.
Banking either Private or Public Banks
After you research about this, please share the info with us.

Wish you all the best!

Cheers,
Lakshmi

 

how many of us have saved the umbilical cord of our children??

Hi,
I have been really interested in the idea of storing babies umbilical cord since it is supposed to have very good and healthy benefits.Additionally there is so much good write up out there about it.I am currently in my initial stages of pregnancy and strongly considering it.

As of now I just have layman's information on this topic (through my readings on the net and magazines), and have not even inquired about how much it costs.But I have a strong gut feel that this is going to be a very expensive but useful idea to put into action.Additionally I am sure that it will not even be covered under our insurance plan.Inorder to get more clarity of thought I thought it would be good to ask the current lot of Mom's if thy have stored their babies umbilical cords for future use.I guess your input will help me make a more rational decision in this regard>

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

 

Re: how many of us have saved the umbilical cord of our children??

Hi Dimple,

In the same boat as you. Expecting in a few months and was considering cord blood storage for future benefits. Most of my friends who have recently had babies have had this done.

The initial cost is around $1,500 and the subsequent yearly storage fee is around 150 bucks. They send the kit to you and the docs/nurses store the cord blood in the kit and someone from the cord blood registry comes and picks it up at the time of the delivery. If you refer someone else to the service, they waive one year's storage fee generally.

Cheers,

Pooja

 

Re: how many of us have saved the umbilical cord of our children??

In India, this concept is something new and catching up recently. There are 2 such cord blood banks in chennai. I enquired the rate and it seems to be a little expensive. They charge around Rs 75,000 for storing up to 21 years. Or you can pay them around 40,000 initially and pay Rs. 3500+ every year for renewal, again up to 21 years.

But my doubts are:
1. What if we need it after 21 years? (or can it be stored only for 21 years?)
2. How sure are we that this bank will exist for all these 21 years?
3. How sure are we that they will maintain proper storage standards for all 21 years?
3. I read somewhere that it is better to go for public cord blood banks than by private ones for various reasons. In India, as far as I am aware, there is no public cord blood bank as yet.

 

Re: how many of us have saved the umbilical cord of our children??

Radhee - It was due to all these very same questions (to which there are no convincing answers) and the general consensus of scientific opinion against private cord banking that I decided not to do it for my baby. I wish we had public cord banking in India.
If anyone wants some balanced reporting here are a couple of articles I liked:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/29/health/29stem.html
Creating a Cord-Blood Lifeline - TIME

Vanathi.

 

Re: how many of us have saved the umbilical cord of our children??

hi dimple and pooja!
my cousin choose the option of storing the cord blood... for their second baby. Even they send the blood to india if u r need and if u r not here. they stored the blood in cbr (Cord Blood Registry (CBR) - The Name to Trust in Cord Blood Banking). i think its really a good option because there over 60 possibly curable to diseases for the immediate family members and they are still researching on it to increase the number of diseases that are curable.. hope it helps. thanks
bye
anooch