*anyone considering Stem Cell storage - or ever heard of it?*

[lenaschildminding]

Hi, I'm expecting my third child, due in September. It's a strange, almost significant due date as it is close to my first son's birthday and anniversary. Sadly, I lost him to a terrible illness called Neuroblastoma, the day after his 5th birthday, 4 years ago this year. Due to this, I have been looking into Stem Cell storage, heaven forbid anything like this would ever happen again, we would then have an exact match for a stem cell (bone marrow) transplant.

Has anyone else considered, researched or even taken up this procedure? All it involves is extracting cord blood from the umbilical cord after delivery and shipping it off to a storage unit, where it is processed and stored for 25 years or until needed. It is totally harmless to mum and baby, it is pricey, but what price can you put on your childs life? It can be used in treatment for many cancers, blood disorders and research is being done into treatment for Parkinsons, Diabetes, Arthritis and other more common problems.

Any views please.....

sAW a bit about it for leaflets, i know there there are a few companies now and they do things slighly different. I think it cost over a grand so alot but not alot for their life. I am aware from watching a programme that sometimes they will work on the mum if needed and then only try for the cord blood after if there is problems straight after the brith.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

I looked into this as well and found this website:

\link{http://www.futurehealth.co.uk/}

We go ahead with it due to the price and at the moment it's is unproven technology.

Is there a genetic link to neuroblastoma?

In my opinion you have nothing to lose by doing it. Most hosipitals are happy to collect the stem cells for you.

We did it for DS1 but not for DS2. Not sure why we didn't for DS2 - but I think DS1's stem cells would probably be ok for him.

They are working quite hard to be able to make stem cells from adult living tissue, for obvious reasons, so I do wonder if stem cell storage is worth the hassle.

I think doing stem cell storage limits your options for how to deal with the cord - e.g. lotus birth would certainly be out of the question. Not that many people want that, but still, it's worth being aware.

I signed up for it with DS - would have done it except the umbilical cord separated on delivery, so they were unable to harvest the cells. DH and I researched and talked and I couldn't find a downside (bar the cost) so we decided go ahead - would have loved for it to be successful and will definitely do it with any further children that we are (God willing) blessed with.

this is more commonplace in NA and is just beginning to take off over here - my sisters both did it for their children ( but only their first - not second)
it's quite pricy
but what price life

hello

i have looked into it and i agree, you cant put a price in something that could save your child or a member of your family, i when i went to my hospital they said they would be happy to collect them, so i bought a kit, a month later they have said they are not trained to collect the stem cells. so i am now not sure where i stand, as the head of midwives has not returned my calls for two days.

I'm a stem cell scientist and I did seriously consider it for DS. However, we were overseas and shipping the cells back to the UK was going to prove very cost-prohibitive.

Stem cell technology is still very much in the pre-clinical stage. The biggest problem, other than the obvious difficulty of generating your cell type of interest, is ablating undesired cell types that may proliferate and generate tumours.

If I was offered the opportunity (free, of course ) to harvest umbilical stem cells this time, then I would. But I would be under no illusion as to their usefullness. Sadly, we are at least 20 years away from being confident that umbilical stem cells can easily be expanded and used to generate the desired cell type in culture.

As for stem cell collection - it is a very specialised process and shouldn't be left to untrained hands. Which will be why NHS units don't want their staff to have anything to do with it - understandable.

Highlander - really interesting post - have never thought about ablation issue - although, as I have posted before, it is still something I would do as was lucky enough to be in the hands of an obstetric consultant who was more than happy to harvest the cells -