What Are Newborn Stem Cells?

Newborn stem cells are special cells collected from the blood and tissue of your baby’s umbilical cord immediately after birth. These cells have unique properties that allow them to develop into various types of cells in the body, making cord blood stem cells incredibly valuable for medical treatments and research. Unlike other cells, stem cells can regenerate and repair damaged tissues, offering a promising avenue for treating various diseases and conditions.

When do I need to decide about preserving my baby’s newborn stem cells?

You need to decide about cord blood banking before your baby is born. Ideally, it's best to make this decision by your third trimester, around 28 to 34 weeks of pregnancy. 

This timeline ensures that you have enough time to research your options, discuss with your healthcare provider, and enroll with a newborn stem cell bank. 

The Potential Health Benefits:

Newborn stem cell preservation may potentially provide future health benefits due to their versatility and potential regenerative capabilities. By banking these cells, families may potentially safeguard their health against certain future medical issues.

Treatment for Diseases and Conditions

One of the most significant advantages of preserving newborn stem cells is their ability to treat a wide range of diseases and conditions. Currently, these cells are used in treatments for over 80 known conditions, including certain cancers, and blood, metabolic, and immune disorders.

For example, stem cells transplants can be used to replace diseased blood cells with healthy ones for certain types of leukemia, offering a critical lifeline in the battle against cancer.

Personalized Medicine

Newborn stem cell preservation also potentially paves the way for personalized medicine. Since these cells are a perfect genetic match for your baby, they can potentially be used to create personalized treatments tailored specifically to their genetic makeup. 

Additionally, full siblings have a 75% chance of being a partial match, and biological parents are always a partial match, expanding the potential uses within the family.

Regenerative Medicine

The field of regenerative medicine is another exciting area where newborn stem cells show great promise. Researchers are exploring how these cells can be used to repair and regenerate damaged tissues and organs. 

This could lead to groundbreaking treatments for conditions such as spinal cord injuries, heart disease, and even neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s. 

By preserving newborn stem cells today, this can be an important investment in potentially protecting your family's future health because stem cell research is always progressing, and this can be a resource for your family in the future.

Newborn stem cells may someday be used to help improve organ and tissue damage caused by age, disease, or trauma. Over 500 clinical trials have been initiated to study newborn stem cells in regenerative medicine. Researchers are investigating groundbreaking new therapies using newborn stem cells.

Siblings and Parents May Also Benefit

One of the benefits of newborn stem cell preservation that may be overlooked by new parents is its potential use for family members. As mentioned earlier, siblings have a high chance of being a genetic match, and parents are always a partial match. This means that preserved stem cells could potentially be used to treat conditions that may arise in immediate family members, not just the child from whom the cells were collected. This may add increased peace of mind for the family.

How Does the Process Work?

Understanding how newborn stem cell preservation works can help demystify the process and make it easier to decide if it’s right for your family. 

The process involves two main steps: collection at birth and storage and preservation.

Be sure to pack the collection kit that CBR provides. Keep it with your hospital bag (no need to refrigerate!) and give it to your labor and delivery nurse upon admission. 

The collection of newborn stem cells (from cord blood and cord tissue) is a simple and painless process that takes place immediately after your baby is born. 

After the umbilical cord is cut, your healthcare provider will use a special kit to collect the remaining blood and tissue from the baby's umbilical cord. This process takes just a few minutes and does not interfere with the birth or cause any harm to the baby or mother. 

If you plan to delay cord clamping, and are worried about your baby's cord blood, be assured cord blood can often still be collected following delayed cord clamping of 30 to 60 seconds, and there is no impact to cord tissue. Parents only get one chance to collect newborn stem cells, and that is at their baby's birth.

Storage and Preservation

Once the stem cells are collected, they are sent to a specialized lab where they are processed and stored. 

CBR's state-of-the-art lab facility located in Tucson, Arizona is built to help ensure the long-term safety of baby's newborn stem cells and offers the highest quality care and protection — samples are monitored 24/7 with regular temperature and environment checks, to ensure the safety and integrity of the stem cells.

The cells are cryogenically frozen, which means they are stored at extremely low temperatures to keep them viable for future use. 

With more than 30 years' experience preserving and safeguarding newborn stem cell samples, be assured your baby's stem cells are in safe hands. CBR has stored more than 1 million newborn stem cell samples — the most in the industry.

Storage and Retrieval Process

The storage and retrieval process are designed to be straightforward and secure. 

Once stored, the stem cells remain in the cryogenic facility until they are needed. 

If at any point your healthcare provider determines that the stem cells are needed for treatment, you can request their retrieval. CBR’s team of experts will handle the transportation of the cells to the treatment facility, ensuring they arrive in optimal condition for use.

More than 80% of the cord blood used by CBR families has been for experimental regenerative medicine applications, for conditions like cerebral palsy. You can hear from real CBR families here.

How Long Can Stem Cells Be Stored?

Cord blood can be stored for decades. When properly frozen, the stem cells within cord blood can remain viable for many years.

Cord blood banks like CBR use cryopreservation techniques to store the cord blood at extremely low temperatures, which effectively stops any biological activity and preserves the cells' viability. 

There is currently no known expiration date for properly stored cord blood, meaning it can be preserved and potentially used many years, even decades, into the future.

Final Thoughts

Newborn stem cell preservation offers a unique and potentially valuable opportunity to invest in the future health of your family. 

With the potential to treat a wide range of diseases, contribute to personalized medicine, and support groundbreaking regenerative therapies, these cells hold immense promise.

The process is simple and safe and may provide increased peace of mind. 

By choosing to preserve your baby’s newborn stem cells, you may be making a proactive decision that may someday help protect your family's health and embrace the possibilities of future medical advancements.

If you’re interested in learning more about newborn stem cell preservation, visit cordblood.com and use my promo code LNM5 for exclusive savings. 

Don’t miss out on this chance to potentially protect your family’s health and be part of the exciting future of stem cell research!