Cord Blood Stem Cell Storage at Birth

During my first pregnancy, my gynae introduced me to umbilical cord blood storage, which was fairly new in Malaysia back then. Umbilical cord blood contains stem cells. It could be used to treat certain genetically related blood diseases, for example leukemia, lymphoma, anemia and thalassemia. With the advance of medical research, in the future there might be more diseases which can be cured with the stem cells.

As the advertisement says, this is “once in a life time chance” to store the baby’s umbilical cord blood for possible use later to save his life. Personally, I think the chances of using it is very low, unless one has the family history of the diseases mentioned above which can be treated with a bone marrow transplant. However, nobody can guarantee this. So as an “insurance”, we decided to go for it for my first baby. In countries like US and Singapore, there are public cord blood banks that accept donations to be used for anyone in need. Unfortunately it was not available in Malaysia and we spent a one-time fee of RM2,000+ to collect the cord blood, followed by an annual storage fee of RM250 until the child reaches 18 years old, with StemLife. That was quite a few years back and I believe that the fees must have been revised to remain competitive in the market.

It was actually the first time for my gynae and the nurses to collect umbilical cord blood cell during my son’s birth at Penang Adventist Hospital. So it was a bit “out of routine” for them. The good thing is that we were not charged extra, as the gynae mentioned that she would impose charges for subsequent cord blood cell collections. I never confirmed this as we chose not to store our second child’s cord blood cell. As mentioned, we both think that the possibility to use it later is really low, and in case needed, there is still the stem cell of the sibling.

Stem cell technology is advancing everyday. In fact, as I just checked out the StemLife website, there is a testimony on foot ulcers of a diabetic patient cured with adult stem cells. And for those who missed out the cord blood banking, adult stem cell can still be possibly collected and stored.

This is just to share with you my limited knowledge on this topic. I believe every parent should be made aware of what stem cell is all about before the birth of the baby. Find out more about it and decide whether it is worth the money to insure on this. I personally do not believe in buying insurance policies for kids (unless it is for tax saving purposes). If there is one insurance policy that I would buy for my kid, this would be my choice.