Choosing the right family cord blood bank provides peace of mind by ensuring your loved ones get reliable life-saving help in the future.
Choosing the right family cord blood bank provides peace of mind by ensuring your loved ones get reliable life-saving help in the future.
Cord blood banking may be one of the most crucial ways to protect your child’s health.
Cord blood is the blood that remains in the umbilical cord and placenta after your baby’s birth. It has a high concentration of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) stem cells, which can be used during stem cell transplants to replace and regenerate damaged bone marrow, and treat blood related disorders.
You can also increase the range of possible treatments by storing your little one’s cord lining. This is rich in mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and epithelial stem cells (EpSCs) which can be used as a form of regenerative medicine. To date, more than 80 major diseases can be treated with cord blood, including conditions such as leukaemia, lymphoma and thalassemia. With rigorous clinical trials in operation today, the list of treatable conditions is set to grow.
PICKING THE RIGHT FAMILY CORD BLOOD BANK
Not all family cord blood banks are created equal. Like your doctor or medical centre, it’s important to choose one that you can trust, offers the right service, and provides the support you require. Here’s how.
1. Look for a trusted facility
You only get one chance to collect your baby’s cord blood at birth. As the family cord blood bank will be storing these life-saving stem cells for the long term, it is crucial to find a bank that you can trust.
A trusted facility like Cordlife – it is the largest and most established family cord blood bank in Asia – can make the process easier for you, and give you that much needed confidence and assurance.
2. Check for quality control
Look for a facility that adheres to the best practices and strict protocols. The public-listed Cordlife fully owns its lab in Singapore, and applies stringent controls on critical services, quality and licensing. This means that your child’s cord blood and cord lining units are most carefully preserved under the bank’s care.
3. Look for certifications
Cordlife is recognised internationally, being one of six family cord blood banks worldwide to attain certifications by the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) and the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT). This means that Cordlife’s lab is regularly audited by these international bodies, thereby ensuring strict protocols and processes are adhered to, and giving you the highest standards of service and practice.
4. Find out about additional service options
Besides storing cord blood stem cells, check if the bank is able to offer more services. Cordlife, for example, is the only lab in Singapore, and one of four banks worldwide that has been licensed to store umbilical cord lining. This means it can store two additional types of stem cells – EpSCs and MSCs – thereby increasing your options for possible therapeutic and regenerative applications in the future.
5. Enquire about customer service and the enrolment process
Cordlife has a 24-hour hotline if you need to get touch with a consultant. Upon enrolment, you will receive a personalised cord blood collection kit. For assurance during the delicate period after giving birth, Cordlife will arrange for a medical courier to pick up your collection kit from the hospital and deliver it directly to the Cordlife laboratory for processing and storage.
