34 Weeks And Counting.. Woohoo!

So I am officially 34 weeks today. Another 6 weeks to go and the end of this journey seems to look nearer and goes faster somehow. 34 weeks pregnancy marks the time when a woman finally entered her third trimester of gestation. It has been a long trip with so many changes happening to my body and now I can't wait to see and hold my little precious in my arms! The nudges and kicks and hiccups are getting stronger. I just love to feel her movements whenever I read her my favourite novel, The Other Boleyn Girl :)

My recent visit to my Ob/Gyn was done in a rather quick mode (as if my previous times were any different). My blood pressure was good, my urine was clean and my weight has increased to 63kg! Oh dear me. Will have to put loads of effort to shed these extra kilos after delivery! The last check-up was focused more on obtaining samples from you-know-where, to screen if I have some nasty infection that might harm the baby later on. It's a standard prcedure to be done when you hit certain gestation, so I kind of expecting it even when I don't suffer from any kind of infection which I can feel or see physically.

I also submitted to my Ob/Gyn Cryocord's cord and blood cord sample collection form. Of course she explained to me that mother's and baby's safety comes first and so if the mother or the baby needs her attention at the time of delivery, she'll attend to one of us and will neglect the cord and the cord blood collection procedure. Fine by me as I won't put my baby's safety in jeorpady for anything.

Weeks before the check-up, Bard and me both were actively scouting for the right cord blood bank to store our third child's cord blood. We have wasted our previous children's cord blood, so this time we decided to store it. I took the companies' brochures from my Ob/Gyn's office, personally contacted all the three banks and set up appointments with them starting from 14th March until 18th March. I later found out that besides the three that I've contacted, there's one more company which provides the same service as the others but I accidentally left it out because I neither come across their name anywhere in the net nor in the hospital.

The three banks I met up with were Stemtech, Cryocord and Stemlife. Among all, I'm pretty sure you guys are familiar with Stemlife. It's not your fault as Stemlife is the pioneer of cord blood banking in Malaysia. Cryocord came in few months after Stemlife, and the youngest company amongst all is Stemtech. All three gave good presentations and have good company profiles. They are offering the same service which ranges at almost the same price (RM2000 - RM2500 per procedure and RM250 for annual fee). The policies, coverages, terms and conditions are basically the same too. Mother's blood sample should be taken for the testing of possible infectious blood disease (HIV, Hepatitis B). If the mother carries this, the contract will be off automatically. If our stemcell count in the cord blood is not sufficient, they'll notify us about it and will advice not to store due to the poor number of stemcells in the blood. Basically, all of them are equally competent and strong, and are offering the same thing at the same rate with the same condition.

I chose Cryocord.

So why did I choose Cryocord? I chose it because it has one product that the others don't have. People store cord blood for future blood disease means of treatment (cancer or leukemia)*. Cryocord store cord blood and the UMBILICAL CORD for future blood disease and OTHER disease means of treatment (for bones, cartilages and cornea to name a few). I am no doctor and no sales person to explain to you what the heck I was writing about, so this should give some brief explaination on what this product is all about (courtesy of Cryocord website):

*Stemcells are NOT for treating diseases, but to aid regrowth and accelerate recovery rate. Example, for cancer patients, they'll still need to do chemotheraphy but with stemcell transplant, their recovery rate will become somewhat faster & better.

The umbilical cord itself is a rich source of stem cells, where its Wharton’s Jelly holds precious Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs). These stem cells have been found to be very promising as it has beneficial properties that Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) may have restrictions in. MSCs have the ability to differentiate into bone, heart, nerve, cornea, fat and cartilage cells besides being able to improve engraftment of HSCs (such as cord blood stem cells) and are unlikely to trigger cellular rejection.

Umbilical cord MSCs that have been isolated from the umbilical cord and expanded are ultimately stored in a cryogenic preservation tank at -190º Celcius in vapour phase.

Why Store Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells?

Simple, quick and painless collection protocol that does not interfere nor complicates the delivery process. Wharton’s Jelly MSCs have been touted as the best alternative to embryonic stem cells by being primitive in nature, but without the controversy that is normally attached to the use of embryonic stem cells.

So yeah, basically that's what it all about. We both really like this product, even when one of the competitors claimed that the future usage of this product is highly experimental and uncertain. I don't see why we should waste it when the possibility to develop it and to use it in future treatment is in favour with our technology evolution? There is no risk involve, and nobody will be in pain during the process. That is the reason why we chose Cryocord over the other two :)

Just to let you guys know, I do not get any benefit out of this entry from Cryocord in whatever form and I'm not doing a promotion on their behalf in whatever way one can imagine. In my opinion, all cord blood banks in Malaysia are equally excellant in their own special way. In the end, it is up to YOU to choose what you really want at how much you are willing to pay with what kind of risks that you're willing to bear.

With that, hope to see you again in my next entry! ;)