Stem Cells?

[Ezzietom]

Hello Everyone,

I just have a quick question!

I am thinking of having my baby's cord blood collected at birth so we can store the stem cells. I am unsure of which company to use as they all seem to offer the same kind of service! Does anyone have a recommendation?

Thank you

Hi Ezzietom, I'm not going to do this and haven't researched it at all but Virgin has been mentioned to me by an independant midwife. Hope this helps.

We went for virgin as they claim to make some of the cells available to the NHS too. But didnt do much research into the others to be honest.

Virgin dont take the blood and only accept it being taken by a "qualified person". They have some numbers of phlebotomy services that would do it though.

Had my DC at different hospitals, the first were fine with taking the blood from the cord after my C section (elective) but the other hospital wouldnt get involved. They were happy for us to arrange a phlebotomist to come in and take it though.

Glad we did it but probably an expensive freezer filler!

there are several other threads on this topic... have a look at

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/childbirth/845350-Cord-Blood-Banking

there are a few different companies mentioned there. a couple of us went with smart cells and we both seem to be happy so far (fingers crossed neither of us ever need the cells!)

good luck!