A Meaningful Gift
I have been reading on various blogs, about cord blood banking. I basically skimmed because I never really understood it. That was until I saw a piece on the news. A couple’s child was literally saved because they had banked stem cells collected from cord blood at the time of his birth. What a fortunate thing that they had made that decision. Their child’s leukemia was treated because of the stem cells they had saved. Stem cells can treat 70 diseases, including leukemia, anemia, lymphoma, diabetes and cerebral palsy. I am not exactly sure how all this works but from what I have read, menstrual cells are processed and cryo-preserved (stored at a very low temperature) for potential cellular therapies that may emerge in the future. I think that more and more people will wish they had done this when they had their babies.
I think one of the reasons that many couples do not bank the cord blood when they have a baby is because of the cost. That is why I have been thinking about how we can help more couples afford to do this through a service called C’elle. C’elle is a revolutionary service that allows women to collect and preserve stem cells found in their menstrual fluid each month. Now, when you are trying to think of the perfect shower or Christmas gift for a couple due to have a baby, here is the perfect gift. A gift certificate for cord blood banking would help couples afford this service. To get more information on how to order a gift certificate go to www.celle.com.
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October 23rd, 2008 at 10:30 am
This post is a pretty shameless advertisement by Cryo-Cell International. Cord blood stem have been used since 1988 as a source of stem cell replacement when traditional bone marrow could not be found for a patient. But the cord blood stem cell…which is an adult stem cell not embryonic…has proven it can do other things than treat blood diseases like luekemia, thalassemia, immunodeficiencies, etc.
Cord blood can be personally stored or donated to a public bank for use by someone in need of a stem cell transplant. Privately stored cord blood has recently shown wonderful promise in the treatment of Cerebral Palsy which affects 1 in every 350 births. Privately storing cord blood is an individual family decision requiring research of sites like http://www.parentsguidecordblood.org and http://www.marrow.org.
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:48 am
So, are you saying it is a good thing but doesn’t necessarily have to be done by the Cyro-Cell service?
October 24th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
I think this is a wonderful idea! I have to say that my husband and I had a terrible time making the decision on whether or not to bank our daughter’s cord blood. We had donated our son’s (because of the cost) but something kept pulling at me the second time to bank it. It definitely is expensive but I am one of those who believe that everything happens for a reason. While I was pregnant with DD nearly every time I would open a pregnancy magazine one of those cards would fall out onto my lap. It just seemed like God was trying to tell me to do it. So we did. I honestly don’t regret the decision and I’m a little more comfortable knowing it’s there and can help many different family members should something bad happen.