Our experience with Cord Blood Banking!

Hey guys, so I wanted to follow up on my previous post about Cord Blood Banking just to update you on how it all went. As most of you know, we chose to work with Future Health Biobank who made the entire process so smooth and easy for us.

I wrote about why we chose to do this in a previous blog post. You can read up on what it is and our reasons for choosing this procedure here.Anyway, my little man is finally here and I already can’t remember life without him. He’s tiny, super squidgy and just perfect! But then again, I’m his mother so I would say that right?

Our little Namiko was born on the 27th of November in a beautiful and calm home setting.

Once all our paperwork was done, we were assigned a phlebotomist, her name is Jane. Jane contacted me via phone to introduce herself and let me know who she was.

The phlebotomist is the person who attends the birth and then collects the cord blood, seals the package and hands it back to us ready to be picked up by the courier.

We were given contact details very early on, along with the contact for a backup phlebotomist should any problems arise and a 24hr hotline number should the backup fail.

Jane preparing the kit

This made me feel very secure as it showed that Future Health Biobank had obviously thought of all possibilities and was ready to tackle them all head on.

I decided halfway through my pregnancy that I wanted to have a home birth. This gave a me a little anxiety though, as I worried about everything going smoothly. Would Jane get to me on time to collect the cord blood?

The process

Turns out there was actually nothing to worry about.

Once I was in established labour, Byron made the call to let Jane know and she got to me before the baby was born. The labour was very straightforward and after just 18 minutes of pushing, our angel was born.

I was in such a state of euphoria that I barely noticed Jane immediately swoop in to take my blood samples.

She worked really fast in collecting the cord blood as well. I was a little shocked at how quick and easy it all seemed. All done whilst enjoying some skin to skin with my new family member.

It was just a few minutes later that Jane let us know she’d completed the collection. She showed Byron everything was collected, sealed and ready for collection. She then once again reminded us to text the courier ASAP to come and collect the package.

The courier arrived within 3hrs of us texting the number, and he was a lovely guy who signed off on the collection, gave us a receipt and went on his merry way.

He also gave us a card, that said congratulations on your new baby. I thought that was a lovely little touch.

Storing the stem cells

So that was pretty much it, everything culminated to that one day and it all went so smoothly I couldn’t be happier. Such a straightforward process to go through for something that could potentially save a life in the future.

A week later we got a call from Future Health Biobank to let us know that the first part of the cord banking had gone really well and the stem cells had been safely stored. The next part was waiting on the host (me) blood test results to ensure I have no genetic disorders that could affect the quality of the stem cells. If there were any problems I could expect to hear back from them sooner otherwise I am to expect an email or letter confirming that test results came back with a positive outcome.

As I write this I haven’t received a call, so I’m assuming that it’s all good news?!

Ty getting to know his baby brother

This has been such a great experience that I would recommend anyone considering cord blood banking to absolutely go for it. Everyone at Future Health Biobank is so informed and helpful, not to mention very good at communicating with me every step of the way so I was always in the loop in terms of what was going on.

I know on paper it all seems so daunting but believe me it really isn’t. I also took the liberty of recording a little Q&A video with some of the frequently asked questions I received from people regarding this process. You can watch the video on my IGTV and hopefully get some more clarity.

That’s it from me, for now!

Please leave me a comment below and let me know what you think! Is cord blood banking something you would consider doing as a form of health protection for your children too? Let’s continue the conversation in the comments.

Until next time, love the life you’re living!

Amanda xoxo