Stem cell harvesting

[Dophus]

It is possible to harvest the stem cells from the umbilical cord of a new born baby. These cells can then be kept frozen in storage and used in the treatment of the number of disorders where treatment of the child requires a matched donor (e.g. leukemia). There are a number of companies that offer this service at a price of approximately £1000.

Does anyone know anything else about this? Are the cells viable after freezing for many years? Does anyone know whether this technology has ever saved the life of child?

You might find this interesting from the Royal College of Midwives
stemcell

As a midwife, I have reservations about this commercial procedure, however, I have assisted parents with the collection of blood when asked by them to do so. The parents are aware that the midwife cannot be held responsible should there be a problem with the collection.

it's v new technology: we thought about it, but decided against as wanted to try for a physiological third stage (you can't do this if you collect cells).

i hope i don't live to regret that we didn't...

Thank you very much for the link. It's good to see an independent view on the subject. It's one of those issues that it is difficult to judge whether there there is a valid scientific argument in favour versus a few companies trying to make a quick buck by praying on the fears of parents to be.

We were asked by my ob if we'd like to donate them and said that that would be fine. There was a problem getting them, so it didn't work out. I don't know what they were going to be used for (she told me at the time, but that was nearly 7 years ago) or what went "wrong" with the collection.

Sorry for the vagueness, I had just had a baby so don't remember the details.

This was in the US and the stem cells weren't for us, but to be donated to ??? . Something that sounded good and worthwhile, at any rate.

imo it's worth doing if - like my friend - there's a known problem you wish to treat (so-called saviour sibling), rather than a v longshot eg leukemia. unfortunately my friend's harvest of cord blood wasn't a match for her other child, so she's having to try other options. there wouldn't be as much need to do this if more of us were on the anthony noland bone marrow register

i tried to have my blood harvested during dd2's birth - not for us, but for anyone who needed it, but was told my hospital didn't have the facilities and anyway I needed counselling (oh yeah, for something that normally gets thrown into the clinical waste bin)

sorry, link to anthony nolan didn't work

I had just received the pack from Anthony Nolan when I became pregnant. I guess it will have to wait now.

My understanding is that only deal with adult bone marrow donations; where were you going to donate the stem cell to?

We did keep ds's cord blood. It was divided into two samples and is stored in two separate facilities.