Any thoughts on storing your babies umbilical cord blood in order to preserve stem cellls for the future?

[airhostess]

Hello,

I'm hearing mixed views on whether this is a good idea.We have no medical reason's for doing this but I'm thinking it could be invaluable. Has anyone done this or intending to?

Kind regards

We used Cells4Life in September 2008 and have a kit waiting in the car to use for DC2 (expected in 6 days or so).

I had not heard of it before, but DH was keen to use it, and we are hoping that as a family we do not have to use the stem cells in future, and that this is just a precaution.

there are lots of companies that do it, for a price. More annoyingly, I would love to donate the stem cells for use by whoever but there are only 8 hospitals in the UK currently that facilitate this.

We considered this before DD1 was born - but decided that we'd rather let her get as much out of the cord on the day she was born when it would definitely be useful and so we had a physiological 3rd stage and waited till the cord had stopped pulsating before letting it be clamped and cut. If you consider the baby/cord/placenta as a unit, there's a significant percentage of blood in the cord/placenta at the point of birth (estimates range from 20 to 60%). It only takes a few minutes for that blood volume to redistribute - mainly into the baby.

If I needed to have a managed 3rd stage for medical reasons then I would be interested in cell storage. But if we have any more DC then our preference, again, would be to delay clamping the cord.

Agree with tangle - if possible, I would use it when definitely useful, ie by letting the cord stop pulsing before clamping.

Is this something that is normal practice waiting for the cord to stop pulsating before clamping or is this something I need to request?
Thankyou all for your feedback xx

I have a friend who works for the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow trust and she has said that there is no scientific proof that frozen cord cells would be effective in the future. However many people have had their lives saved by donated stem cells such as those from cords and this is a major area of treatment growth as the chances of finding a bone marrow match for a person are much lower than finding compatible stem cells.

I just got confirmation from www.worldmarrow.org/ that at the present time (and possibly for the next ten years if not longer), there is no autologous (self donation) that is viable yet. Everything that is being done is pure research. I was about to sign up with a registry when my ob encouraged me to do more research - I was led to believe on the phone by a marketeer for one of the largest cord banking companies that I would be able to use my baby's cord blood at any given time - so not true.

Please please check the site or with another source before you commit to this service.

in this country, there have been limited cases of successful use of transplants for critical illnesses indeed. however, there are lots of success stories in the usa and other parts of the world.... we intend to store our baby's blood and cord cells. pricey indeed, however, you have to look at this exercise as an insurance policy. if you spread the cost over 25 years (storage time), it is a trivial amount to pay imho...

Lilly13 are you able to point me in the direction of success stories in the US and other parts of the world? Or information on what kind of conditions can/have been treated with stem cells? Interested in doing this and trying to find reserch both for and against before deciding.

Some info here: www.anthonynolan.org/News/Government-announces-extra-funding-for-stem-cell-r.aspx?year=2011&month=02

airhostess: "Is this something that is normal practice waiting for the cord to stop pulsating before clamping or is this something I need to request? "

Standard practice in the UK is to give an injection of syntocinon (synthetic oxytocin) or synotmetrine (synotcinon combined with ergometrine) as soon as the baby is delivered, sometimes as soon as the head is delivered, to encourage the uterus to contract down and the cervix to close. This is thought to help reduce the risk of PPH (although the jury seems to be out, especially if there are no risk factors relevant to this aspect). It is then standard to clamp the cord as soon as the baby is delivered. This is why the cell storage companies get away with lines such as "why not save this precious resource, which would otherwise be thrown away" - standard practice does just that. Whether or not standard practice is still best practice is much more debatable.

If you decide to have either a completely physiological 3rd stage (where you let nature take its course - do read up on the finer points as some MW's have had very little experience, which can lead to mismanagement) then I would make sure your birth partner is VERY clear on the fact, that you make it equally clear to all the MWs and that you write it in big letters on your birth plan.

You can start with a physiological 3rd stage and move to active management (injection, etc) at any point should the MWs see a need (again, you might want to read up on what YOU would see as a "need" - some MWs consider 10 minutes too long to wait for a placenta, just because that's how things tend to pan out with active management, but without the jab there's a lot less time pressure and an hour is not uncommon) or you get fed up of waiting.

I would dearly love to see more research done into the impact of allowing all the cord blood into the baby - but I suspect its unlikely to happen as who will fund it? I do find it frustrating that cell storage firms use such emotive language - if they're that convinced of the worth of this, why do they need to use emotional blackmail?