Stem cells for your baby

[sinti]

Tried to post it once but nothing happened.

So, is there anyone who has been interested in collecting stem cells for your baby? Do you know anything about it here in Finland?

We are really interested in this opportunity as we are now 22 weeks and there would be time to make the decission. BUt we do not know anyone who has used this opportunity.

I will appreciate your comments. Have a great week

[miti]

I was asking about it nearly two years ago and what I found out is that at least at that time there was no company in Finland doing it commercially. Only thing they do is sometimes (and only in some places) collect it to the Finnish Cord Blood Bank, and then it is more or less as donation - you do not have to pay anything but there is also no guarantee you could use it in the future. I even called them and they were very nice but made it quite clear that they object the commercialization of it.

You can of course take a company from somewhere else in Europe, it should be possible to deliver it.

Good luck with your pregnancy!

[fannette]

Hello! I'm now 37 weeks pregnant, and i've asked my gynecologue as well as the midwife, none of them ever heard about that.

Therefore we choose one company in Switzerland that collect stemcells.

We recieved a prelevment package with all the necesarry tools and instructions to take the blood from the ombilical cord at the birth. You just have to make sure with the hospital where you will be giving birth that they agree to do it; but actually there is no reason for them not to do it, it's just taking a blood sample from the cord, very easy to do (well... if some nurses are still working on the day of your birth, unless they have all resigned ...)

Then, you ship the blook sample to that company in Switzerland and they would keep it for 20 years. The blood sample has to arrive in Switzerland in the 72 hours following the birth.

If you want the name of that company, pm me.

Bye bye

[EP]

Just out of curiosity: What are those stem cells for?

[sinti]

How are you going to ship the sample to Switzerland in such a short time and when you personally do not have that much time to do that?
How much are the costs for the begining package until you get the cells to be frozen?

I can shortly try to explain that stem cells are primal cells that retain ability to renew themselves and generate other specialized cells. They contain all the necessary information. They are used in medicine to treat some serious deseases as cancers etc. Research of their posible usage is still at the very begining but in near future they could probably been used widely.
Normaly they are taken from bone tissues or through cloning but these two ways either have ethical issues or the opportunity that the donor cells will fit with patients cells is something around 70 000 : 1 (or even worth).
So the other way to take them is from ubical cord after the bby is born. It is discovered that ublical cord's blood contains also those primal stemm cells. IT is ethical, it isn't painful.

There are some companies that take these cells, freeze them and keep in cell banks for 20-30 years.

Sorry, I am really bad in explaining this kind of stuff in English. But hope you got some idea. There is lots in internet too.

[fannette]

this stemcell bank is organising the transport (actually, it is simply TNT that is taking car of the shipment.)

So, just after the blood sample has been taken, we have to put it in a special box with some refrigerant packs (box and refrigerent bags are provided by this stemcell bank in the prelevment package). Then we call TNT. As far as i understood, they would then come to pickup this box at the hospital (this could happen in the next 2 hours after birth) and then this box is shipped to Switzerland, and i sent by airplane i guess (several daily flights to both Zurich and Geneva).

so the process goes like this,
1. you apply for this service with the registration form that is in their website (http://www.stembank.ch)
2. you pay an advance of 1000 CHF (about 600 EUR)
3. in the next days, you will recieve the prelevment kit with explanations for you and for the doctor
4. at birth, the doctor takes the blood sample and you pack everything according to the instructions that you recieved (no rocket science, dont worry )
5. the shippment company picks up the box and send it to Switzerland.
6. the blood samples are examinated and if it is judge good to be kept for the stemcells, then you would get a kind of a certificate, and then only you have to pay the rest of the total cost (about 1200 EUR).

As you see, this time i mentioned the name of that stembank, but i dont want to make special advertisment for them! Let me say again, that we still haven't done this (i'm still pregnant!), therefore i cannot judge if this one is good or not, but it is famous in Switzerland where this stemcell collection is more common than in Finland.

Waouw, that was a long answer... sorry if i bothered you

[raamv]

hmm When we had our kids, I asked the Dr and the midwives whether they preserve the umblical cord..the answer was NO..and they generally discard this immediately..
So be prepared that you might encounter some resistance of preserving the umblical cord!!
As you know, the Dr's r nurses dont need to follow protocols outside their normal duties. So consult the midwife who might deliver your baby!!
Just a word of prevention is better than...

[sinti]

Thank you fannette for the reply.
It might not be very complicated for the midwife or doctor to take the blood etc.
But as far as I know in Finland we cannot know which midwife will receive the baby. In other countries it is possible to make contract with certain doctor and / or midwife. So, how do you know to which midwife to give the instructions?
Or are you going to tell that before the actual delivery?

Probably I would get clear with this all when we start to get ready for the delivery but we are too early still.

Do you also think that it is worth investing such money?

[EP]

Do you also think that it is worth investing such money?

I don´t know. This is the first time I have even heard about the whole thing. I suppose it depends how advanced stemcell research is at this stage. And how advanced you think it will be 20 years from now.

Of course every parent`s number one priority their children´s safety. But one must remember that you really cannot eliminate all risks and diseases.

[pierrot]

Thank you fannette for the reply.
It might not be very complicated for the midwife or doctor to take the blood etc.
But as far as I know in Finland we cannot know which midwife will receive the baby. In other countries it is possible to make contract with certain doctor and / or midwife. So, how do you know to which midwife to give the instructions?
Or are you going to tell that before the actual delivery?

Probably I would get clear with this all when we start to get ready for the delivery but we are too early still.

Do you also think that it is worth investing such money?

We stood before the same situation 2 years ago and finally opted not to do it. Why? because if you look at the cold hard facts, what do you think will the research and the related industry try to get: a cure or method which works for a few million people who have embryonic stem cells saved somewhere or the whole billions with adult stem cells. There are already treatments including adult stem cells, yet we didn't back then come across successful treatments with own embryonic stem cells. So these are merely a "bet" that such thing will be available at some point.

Thats the situation we found back then. Maybe it changed in the last 2 years, but I don't really think so, at least I didn't see something about a great breakthrough in the medias concerning this.

[fannette]

As you say, we dont know which midwife (or which doctor) is going to take care of us at delivery, but i've called the hospital (in my case Katiloopisto in Helsinki) and asked them if they can do this (take blood from ombilical cord at birth) and they said yes. you should as well contact the hospital where you are going to give birth and ask them if they are familiar with that.

good luck

[bavarian-girl]

I asked the same question at Naistenklinikka about a year ago.

They said it would be possible, altough not common at all.
They would need to know very well in advance, to organize everything.