With so much to think about when expecting a new baby, whether to preserve your baby’s stem cells from their cord blood and cord tissue might seem like just one more thing to add to the list.
Parents often have a lot of questions about why they should save their baby’s stem cells, what these powerful cells can be used for, and what they should look for in a cord blood and tissue bank.
Well, we want to help make this easier for you. We are Whit and Chrissy, neighborhood moms and your local CBR representatives. We love talking to parents and answering their questions about cord blood and tissue banking.
1. Why should I store my baby’s stem cells?
Given the uncertainty of the world, it’s important to know there’s one thing you can do to protect your family’s future. By cryogenically storing these cells now, and stopping the clock on aging, you’ll have potential access for decades to come.
They’re also unique to your family, which is important if you ever need to use them. Not only is your baby always a 100% match to their own cord blood stem cells, full siblings have up to a 75% chance of matching, too. If they’re needed for a stem cell transplant, a doctor is going to look for a closely matched donor, like from a sibling.
Banking at birth is the only guarantee a parent has that their child will absolutely have a match for their own stem cells. And given that many transplant physicians look for a closely matched sibling, this is also a parent’s chance to ensure their other children may have a stem cell match as well.
Additionally, given the information available today, cord blood units in proper cryostorage should be able to be preserved forever. Which means that, by storing now, your family will have more potential options and peace of mind for years to come.
2. What are newborn stem cells used for?
Today, cord blood is used to treat more than 80 conditions of the blood and immune system as part of a stem cell transplant, where the stem cells are used to rebuild a healthy immune system for things like certain cancers and blood disorders. There’s also a lot of potential in another area of medicine – called regenerative medicine – where researchers are investigating how these powerful cells can help repair damage and improve cellular communication. In fact, there’s more than 300 clinical trials that have been initiated in this field of medicine!
What are they researching? Conditions like autism, cerebral palsy, hearing loss, and other conditions that have no cure today. Which means that preserving cord blood and cord tissue now could mean more therapeutic options in the future for your family.
3. Why should I choose CBR?
You’ll want to choose a bank that’s reliable, secure, and who is available to answer questions when you need them.
Since 1992, more families have chosen CBR than any other bank. To date, we have stored over 900,000 samples and counting. Our lab and storage facility in Tucson, Arizona, is at low-risk for natural disasters. Plus, our samples are monitored 24/7/365, with more than 500,000 quality checks annually.
But beyond that, we’re there when our families need us. During times like the one we’re currently facing, it’s especially important that families are able to call on our customer service support staff.
We’ve helped more than 600 families use their cord blood stem cells in a transplant or investigational use. Should a need arise, our team will work with the treating facility and safely release your cord blood sample, handling all the logistics.
We hope this helped to clear up some of the questions you may have about newborn stem cells. If you would like to learn more about these powerful cells and get a special savings, call or email us today. We would love to hear from you!
Please contact Chrissy Moggio at [email protected] or 202.550.3862 for Washington, DC & Maryland. OR Whit Shelburn at [email protected] or 703.776.0800 for Northern Virginia.
1. Verter, F., Couto, P. S., & Bersenev, A. (2018). A dozen years of clinical trials performing advanced cell therapy with perinatal cells. Future Science OA, 4(10). doi: 10.4155/fsoa-2018-0085
