The Goods

Well here is some pictures I took of our new goods all set up and ready to go.




Craig and I also decided we are going to save and store the baby's cord blood. This was a hard decision to make as it is quite an expensive thing to do. However, we realize that this "might" be the last chance we have to do this and that this baby's cord blood could save the baby's life or anyone in our family over the next 20 years.

UMBILICAL CORD BLOOD:

Research has shown that umbilical cord blood, which in the past has been routinely discarded after a baby is born, is a valuable source of potentially life-saving stem cells.

After the birth of your baby, there is (on average) 60-180 ml of blood remaining in the umbilical cord and placenta. This cord blood contains red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and stem cells.

Collection of cord blood is a safe and easy procedure that takes only minutes to complete. It does not interfere with the standard birthing practices of your caregiver or the institution where you will give birth.

Stem cells are the "master cells" or building blocks of the bone marrow that continuously replicate and differentiate into the cells of the blood and immune systems: red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. In adults, stem cells can only be found in bone marrow, and can only be collected by a bone marrow biopsy, which is a painful procedure.

Umbilical cord blood stem cells are created during your baby's development during pregnancy. These stem cells are readily found in the fetal circulation (and umbilical cord) at the time of birth. Therefore, at the time of your child’s birth, parents have a once in a lifetime opportunity to harvest, process and store these cells.

Aside from being the precursor cells for the blood and immune system, there is increasing evidence that stem cells collected at birth can be directed to different cell lines such as neural tissue, liver cells or cardiac muscle. Recent evidence has shown that umbilical cord blood stem cells can produce all of the cell types found in the body

Cord blood stem cells are a viable and useful alternative to bone marrow stem cells in reconstituting diseased or depleted bone marrow resulting from conditions such as leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell anemia and immune system disorders. They can also be used for repair of bone marrow after extensive chemotherapy or radiotherapy in diseases such as cancer.

• Cord blood collection is a safe, quick and non-invasive procedure.
• Cord blood stem cells have a superior proliferative capacity.
• Cord blood stem cells have a greater immunological naivete, allowing possible transplants to siblings or other family members if needed.
• Use of Cord blood stem cells results in significantly less graft versus host disease.
• Cord blood is readily available at the birth of every baby.


BENEFITS: REASONS TO PROTECT UMBILICAL CORD STEM CELLS

Most families do not have identifiable risk factors that necessitate the need for umbilical cord blood and fortunately, most will never have to use their frozen stem cells. Most clients choose to store their baby's cord blood simply for the security it offers. Experts vary in their estimates of the need for a given cord blood sample and estimates range from 1:1000 to 1:20,000 for use by the baby. The probability of use increases to around 1:10,000when the potential need by other family members is taken into consideration.

Treatment with donated bone marrow transplantation is limited by the shortage of suitable donors. The search for an unrelated donor can be a time consuming and often futile process. The chances of finding a Caucasian match is approximately 30% and the chance for a suitable match is much less if the patient is of different ethnic origin. Furthermore, bone marrow transplantation using an unrelated donor more often results in graft vs. host disease (60-90%), which if severe, is a major case of death (50% survival at 2 years post transplant).

Umbilical cord stem cells have been frozen for at least 15 years and theoretically, can be stored for the lifetime of the baby. Medical research in the field is growing at a rapid pace. New treatment options will undoubtedly become available, and it simply makes sense to have frozen umbilical cord stem cells available for potential treatment options for certain cancers, diseases or conditions. For a minimal expense, couples can have their stem cells safely stored at Cells for Life for potential future use.

Benefits of Cord Blood Transplantation:
1. Perfect match to the child, siblings have a 25% chance of being an exact match and a greater chance of being a viable match.
2. Parents and relatives are a potential partial match.
3. Easily obtained at time of delivery without risk or pain to mother or child.
4. Stored for personal use and readily available.
5. Important for ethnic minorities that may have difficulties finding a suitable match from bone marrow registries.
6. Decreased risk of infectious disease contamination.
7. Less stringent HLA matching required for use in transplantation as compared to bone marrow.
8. Fewer side effects and significantly less Graft versus Host Disease after transplantation.

here have been thousands of successful cord blood treatments worldwide to-date. Below is a list of categories of successfully treated diseases:

• Chronic and acute leukemia • Immune system diseases
• Stem cell diseases • Platelet abnormalities
• Red and white cell diseases • Autoimmune disease
• Reconstitution of the bone marrow
following high dose chemotherapy for cancer

Now that umbilical cord blood stem cells storage and transplantation is widely accepted by the medical and scientific profession as a valid and immensely useful procedure, medical literature on the topic has increased on an almost daily basis.

In addition to the many diseases and cancers that can be treated with umbilical cord stem cells, there is new research showing potential for treatment of the following conditions:

• Lupus (SLE)
• Neurologic Disorders such as ALS & MS
• Diabetes
• Alzheimer's Disease
• Parkinson's Disease
• Heart Disease
• Liver Disease
• Spinal Cord Injury
• Stroke