cord blood

[Lorien]

Has anyone extracted the cord blood from the umbillical cord at delivery? If so would you recommend it? Is it expensive to store? Thanks to advise, Lorien

I have'nt but i would definitley do it if I were having another baby. Have you tried a search under stem cell storage?
My DH has had a bone marrow transplant leaving him infertile so I think the umbillical stem cell storage is a great step forward

We stored our daughter's cord blood. The company we used is Cryolife. (We are in Hong Kong, so not sure if they do this in UK. But they are a US company I think.) Sorry, can't lay my hands on the file where I keep all the details, as I remember we bought a package which covers 3- 5 years. That includes the kit to take the blood and the processing/testing etc. Then it includes storage for first few years. Then there will be a further annual cost I guess. I really can't remember how much it is. I'll see if I can post later when I can lay my hands on the file.

Hi Lorien,

my independent midwife advised against it - she said it was a waste of money if you live in the UK, as the NHS has/is building a stem cell bank which will cover everybody, plus there is a lot of doubt as to the usefulness of cord blood. She does think it is moderately useful if you live in a country which has a 'fend for yourself' health system like the USA. There is a company which does it in the UK -www.cordbloodbank.co.uk Cord Blood Bank . Here are a couple of articles on stem cell banking: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1659632.stm and news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1528755.stm
We almost did it - as it turned out after dd was born her cord blood would have been unsuitable anyway, so I'm glad we didn't fork out £700 for it.

I was really surprised to see this topic when just the other day I had recieved a phone call at work re the advice we were giving women on Stem cell retrival from cord blood. There looks as if there may need to some code of ethics and of professional practise to be devised and have some type of professional body/ authority governing and monitoring pracise. Unfortunately, there have been a few companies in GB setting themselves up as offering a retrival service for parents from placental cord blood, costing around £800 a year. I believe the consensus opinion that the actual incidence of needing to use stem cells is so minute it is a general waste of money. I beleve that the NHS is already offering stem cell retrival when there is a known genetic disorder in the family, usually for immediate use. Men and Women about to undertake chemotherapy are also offered sperm and egg retrival at no cost to them depending on the circumstances.
I do not know how i personally feel, my ex partner sadly died last year from a condition that may well have been helped by recieving stem cells, his youngest being only 30 months when he died. His condition was diagnosed only a matter of months before, so no pre warning. The stem cell may have not have worked either.

I was thinking of this the other day too - but in terms of donating it for scientific use - does anyone know anything about it?