banking cord blood stem cells in Switzerland

Family, Education, Health and Pets
1
Hi all

Did anyone bank their new born cord stem cells , anyone been through the process in Switzerland? How it`s done? opinion? cost? Would private health insurance cover it? annual fees??

Any info is highly appreciated. I`m meeting with my doctor next week to discuss this, but thought hearing what others know about the topic might help us understand a bit more.

Thanks,

2
I searched everywhere when I was preggers and it turned out that it was very much university hospital/hospital linked so check with your doctor. It wasn't available in Neuchatel but in Zurich you shouldn't have too many issues.

Otherwise I found this:

http://www.stembank.ch

However I was told you are much better going with a program where you give your cells to be used and if something should happen to your child it will recover others from the stock they hold when the time comes.

X

3
Similar advice to above. If you want to donate the cord blood, then it might be used by other children. The odds of needing the cord blood for your own child are extremely minimal, so unless you actually know that it will be useful, then you could think about donating it.

On the other hand, there is evidence that the cord blood is useful to the baby's own body at birth (have a look at 'delayed cord clamping') - if you want to store the cord blood then the cord has to be cut a certain way and handled by someone who knows the procedure...

I delayed cutting the cord with my third birth, and I believe he was much 'redder' than my other two children afterwards - there's some evidence that letting the baby have the blood from the placenta gives them better iron stores for the first year of life...

http://apps.who.int/rhl/pregnancy_ch.../en/index.html

And here's an older thread on the forum:

Anyone used Vita34 for cord blood storage?

4
There's another bank here in CH called Cryo-Save. They might be worth checking out too. http://www.cryo-save.com/ch/en

5
As this original thread is a bit old, I am giving it a bump to see if anyone has any new info or experience with banking cord blood. Our baby is due in July (in Zug), and I would love to hear from anyone who has done this in Switzerland. Thanks.

6
I got the info concerning a couple of banks in Swiss Romande inside the "maman" and "babyplanet" boxes from the doctor and pharmacy (and from memory there was also a brochure in the waiting room at the gynaecologist, so I think at least one new one has opened....

...but sorry, I didn't keep any of the info as I chose to delay cord clamping like Swisspea described earlier.

But here is a link to info (and prices) in english: http://ch.cryo-save.com/en

7
check this thread

Swiss Stem Cell Bank

and this link I posted there

http://parentsguidecordblood.org/findabank.php