cord blood / stem cell collection - did you do it?

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ds2 is due in a few weeks and we would like to have his cord blood/ stem cells stored. When ds1 was born (nearly 3 yrs ago in NYC) the hospital staff collected the sample from the umbilical cord that was sent to the lab.

For ds2, I am booked at Queen Charlotte's in London and they have given us conflicting information about whether they will help. One midwife seemed open to the idea and said the staff would give us all the guidance (but not touch the equipment, for legal reasons). Another midwife turned hostile and dismissive - almost to the point of putting us down for wanting to do this.

I am wondering 1) about other people's experiences with the NHS and cord blood/ stem cell collection 2) what company or service you used. We could go through the American company that has ds1's stem cells but for ds2 would rather use a local one since we are now based in London. Thanks.

I looked into this for DS but the hospital would not assist us so we did not go ahead

Might be worth you speaking to the Head of midwifery as they will probably have a policy on it

Thanks. I'll do that.

I had a look at this too and Virgin do it. You would have to google for info on the details though. From what I could gather, they take your money and send you all the equipment and then the cord is sent to be stored in their cord bank or whatever but there was no mention of how the actual hospital are involved or if you have to get them involved or anything.

It seems to be a totally grey area in the UK anyway.

We can't afford it just now anyway which is a horrible thing to have to say because if you need to use it later on down the line the money it would cost to do this just now will seem like nothing...

Best of luck!!! Let us know how you get on if you feel like it... It is a very sensitive subject at the moment isnt it?

Hi,

One of my clients at work are Future Health based in Nottingham www.futurehealth.co.uk
They collect cord blood, spin it, freeze it etc and I know they are Department of Health approved for this process (they may indeed be the only company that still are, not sure) so they should be able to advise about how to deal with your maternity unit and as the are DofH approved should be accepted by any NHS hospital I should think?

can you donate stem cells from cord for other people to use? friends dad had a stem cell transplant aftrer a rare cancer, and is now doing ok, so would like to know more.

you can donate although only certain hospitals are doing it I think

Thanks for all responses.

In some countries you can donate stem cells from the umbilical cord for other people to use. It's seen as a public health issue. But very few hospitals in the UK do this (just 4 or so, I think). Queen Charlotte is not one of them, which is why private storage is our only choice.

Some collection labs in the US let you spread the cost over many months or years. Maybe that's the case here as well.