Cord Blood has been tested up to 29 years of storage. Many experts believe that your baby’s stem cells will be viable forever and every year we have more data which shows cells do not deteriorate in long term storage.
With annual storage fees it’s up to you how long to store the cells for. This let’s you take advantage of the most up-to-date science.
A stem cell transplant is the infusion of healthy stem cells into your body. Cord Blood stem cell transplants help your body make enough healthy white blood cells, red blood cells, plasma and platelets. They can also treat other life-threatening conditions including Anaemia and Leukaemia.
Umbilical Cord Stem Cells have successfully treated:
Immune Diseases, Blood Disorders, Cancers, Neurological and Metabolic Disorders, and are in current trials to treat many more diseases including Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s Disease.
You have 3 choices when deciding what to do with your umbilical cord:
- Store it privately – through one of our preferred partners. This is a charged service but keeps the cells for your family only.
- Donate it to a public bank – though the NHS or ANT. This is a free service but unfortunately means your cells will not be kept for you. They will most likely be used for medical research or discarded. Only approx 30% of donated samples are used to help other people around the world and there are only 10 donation centres in the UK.
- Throw it away as medical waste – losing the stem cells forever
Most definitely not. Collecting cord blood is risk-free. After your cord is clamped your midwife will hand it to the phlebotomist who will be waiting outside the delivery room. Your midwife or doctor do not need to get involved and will keep their attention on you and your newborn baby at all times.
After delivery of the placenta and clamping of the cord, your midwife will pass the cord onto your dedicated phlebotomist. Your phlebotomist will then drain the blood from the cord using a gravity bag before removing a section of the cord tissue. Both samples will be sealed and the kit will be signed and returned to you.
The cells collected always belong to you and so you can access your sample at any time. If you are using your stored cells for another family member a simple blood test will advise the match percentage.
Unfortunately not. Storing with a public bank means your stem cells will be most likely used for medical research or be discarded. Only about 30% will go to treating someone else. Public banking will not give you or your family any priority to your stored cells. We recommend public banking to families who are in a donation area but are unable to store privately.
At Stemology, we want Cord Blood Banking to be within the reach of everyone. Therefore, we recommend that our partners offer various payment plans up to 12 months. Please bear in mind that a credit check will be required for all payment plans and annual storage is a separate fee.
An umbilical cord holds approximately 200ml of blood and can contain millions of stem cells. Generally, a higher volume blood collected equates to a higher number of stem cells in the sample, but this is not always the case. You will receive a cell count from your chosen provider upon successful storage.
Delayed Cord Clamping is compatible with Cord Blood Collection and many clients choose to do both together.
All of our partner phlebotomists are well aware of the collection procedure in conjunction with Delayed Cord Clamping.
We have also worked alongside waterbirths, hypnobirths, natural and c-section births and have successfully stored cells from over 95% of birthing scenarios.