What is the best umbilical cord blood stem cell preservation company?

Please only answer IF you or someone you know has banked their babies cord blood.

I would ask the hospital or check online! There are all kinds of adds in preganancy magazines!

Make sure the cord blood bank you use is a licensed cord blood bank. Check out the cord blood organizations listed at http://cordbloodstocks.com/
to see if they have any info on your bank.

How important is it to really save the baby's cord blood for stem cell use- is it just a trendy phase? How important is it to really save the baby's cord blood for stem cell use- is it just a trendy phase?

As a researcher, I would say that it's absolutely not a 'trendy' phase, but can lead to amazing breakthroughs in modern medicine. But, like anything of this magnitude, needs to be carefully thought out and planned and steps should be taken to protect the confidentiality of everyone involved.

For which diseases or conditions is umbilical cord blood stem-cell therapy most effective? For which diseases or conditions is umbilical cord blood stem-cell therapy most effective?

I don't agree that the answer is "none" when in fact cord blood stem cells has already proven to be effective. Below is a link for a full list of diseases treated by cord blood stem cells.

It seems as if more of the successful stories from using cord blood stem cells are for leukemia, lymphoma and sickle cell anemia.

Please guide which is better for spinal cord injury: One's own stem cells or umbilical cord blood stem cell?

My cousin being a victim to spinal cord injury we are planning for his own bone marrow stem cells treatment by NCRM (http://www.ncrm.org/) - Life line hospital, Chennai group. But the first such success having been reported by a korean team in which umbilical cord blood has been used (http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200411/ ... 710440.htm) I wonder whether there is any reliable institute in India offering this treatment using umbilical cord blood.

When my sister delivered a baby we understood there are more than 7 companies in India storing the umbilical cord blood stem cells, but none were confident enough to say they could offer treatment for such diseases. can any one guide me with?

I have had patients (in India), who after storing their Umbilical cord blood couldnt use for a sibling as these cord blood storage companies simply told their clients that their responsibility is only to Store and Deliver. Leave them! Ones own bone marrow is OK, but still on experimental basis, but should the treatment you think have to take place in India, then thats only resort.

I dont think any umbilical cord blood company in India is involved in real research towards applications, as most of them are run by business men and stock brokers whose main aim is to just make money without any botheration for patients. Preferably the government should come with public banking attached to their tertiary referral hospitals to solve this problem.

Is it possible to make an identical twin of my baby from her umbilical cord blood stem cells?

I would never want to do this, but I'm wondering if it is possible.

Which is why people will keep their babies stem cells in the future...so that they can be used to create a new kidney or a new heart... pick ur part no more rejections for transplants...

Someone suggested tht i should plan for umblical cord blood stem cell banking.what r its benefits.?

And how does this umblical cord cell banking helps?

I looked into this also but then decided not to do it. The benefits are that your baby's cord blood can be used to treat certain diseases if he is prone to them later on in life, such as diabetes and cancers.. possibly even cure them. Basically, it's like an insurance. Your baby's cord blood can only be saved at birth so you can't decided later on that you want to do it.. it's a now or never thing. The cost is about $1,500 - $2,000 initially, and then about $100 a year after that for every year you store it. There are other pricing plans and companies vary.
It is a good plan for someone with a family history of diseases, cancers and diabetes.. also a good thing just to have if you want it. We decided not to do it after doing extensive research on it. It doesn't guarantee curing diseases and doesn't really guarantee anything. It's basically just a research that is still in process. I also feel like in 20 years from now, we are going to see so many breakthroughs with medical research that we are no longer going to need stem cells and cord blood.. so by then it may or may not have been a waste of money. That is my theory on it. But I say do research on it and decide if it's good for your baby.. also speak to your doctor about it. It obviously won't hurt to go forward with it.
When I researched.. I thought neo cells was the best company: http://www.neocells.com
They will send you an information booklet if you request it.
Best Wishes. ;-)

We are thinking of storing our expectant childs stem cells from their cord blood. Does anyone know who prevalent this is, I live in Europe but any numbers for America, Australia etc. would help. I have read quite a bit about it but usually from companies in the market so I am looking to see if there is some credibility to this by seeing how many people do it?

Its actually incredably expensive compared to the chances that your child will need it. And there is only a 25% chance that siblings match hla tissue type, and 1 in 8 that a person will match a parent or child.

Most people actually donate the cord blood where, in the US, it goes into a public cord blood bank and into the National Marrow Donor's Program registry.

Cord blood is used in stem cell transplants (bone marrow transplants) the same way actual marrow or peripheral blood stem cells would be. Problem is that one unit of cord blood is generally only going to be enough cells for a small child. I used cord blood for my transplant last summer, but I had to use 2 different units. Cord blood also does not have to be matched near as close, which is what gives the ability to use 2 units.

http://www.marrow.org is the US Marrow Donors Program and registry. It will give you info on how cord blood can be used in stem cell transplants, how to bank, and how to donate. They also have links to other countries, and should have links to your country. If not search 'your country marrow registry'

What is the difference from Embryonic Stem Cells and Cord Blood Stem Cells?

My husband and I currently have 4 children. At each of their births, we chose to have their cord blood collected and their stem cells stored at the Cord Blood Registry facility in Tucson, Arizona. When our first child was born in 1999, many people still did not know about cord blood and stem cells. Our youngest is 12 months old and it seems that more people are aware and interested in stem cell storage/usage.
I have wondered a lot about the difference in ESC and the cord blood stem cells collected at birth. There are literally thousands of baby's born daily, why aren't mother's advised and/or given the option to donate their baby's cord blood? It may depend on morals or beliefs of the mother. Even if ESC's are better, shouldn't we still be concerned about saving the stem cells that are in cord blood? Is it a funding issue? I just couldn't waste my kids' cord blood, but #3 did have a small collection of only 29cc's (<1oz.).