When you become pregnant, you get all sorts of strange cravings for certain types of food. Each woman’s body is different, and your cravings will vary. While it is okay to give into your cravings of French fries dipped in ice cream, it is important for expecting moms to also change their diets to include some essential pregnancy foods that will ensure a healthy baby.  

 This week across the country and in the United States we celebrate National Medical Laboratory Week where we acknowledge all the medical laboratory professionals who serve on the front lines of the public health system.

Oh Baby! Magazine, one of Canada’s most beloved parenting publications will be hosting a Facebook party on April 19, 2012 – and you’re invited! Insception is a sponsor of this fun and unique online event, providing you with some fantastic prizes just for taking part.  

 Spring is a time for new beginnings, and what better time to begin preparing to bring a new life into this world. For expecting parents, now is the time to begin planning for your baby’s birth, including decorating their nursery, buying baby clothes and taking parenting and childbirth classes. Now would also be the ideal time to find out more about cord blood banking, and Insception offers parents a great platform to do so. 

Umbilical cord blood contains cells called Mesenchymal Stem Cells, that are capable of producing a variety of cell types, including muscle, bone and chondrocytes. Recently, a group of scientists in Brazil were able to produce Chondrocytes, the cells involved with cartilage production, using defined growth factors from Umbilical Cord Blood. This is important because the use of defined growth conditions will allow for the high yield production of a pure population of cells that will be suitable for clinical applications.

 It is a well-known fact that stem cell research is a controversial topic. This is mainly because of the way in which stem cells were commonly harvested previously, creating a moral and ethical dilemma among researchers and families in need. Today, Pro-Life groups are showing their support of stem cell research, thanks to ethical forms of collection such as cord blood banking.  
 

 Praxair, a company which supplies gasses and coatings, has featured Insception in its latest newsletter, profiling our use of liquid nitrogen to freeze cord blood stem cells.  

The stem cells which are derived from a baby’s umbilical cord at birth must be cryopreserved after being collected. This is an important step in the successful storage of umbilical cord blood. 

 Umbilical cord blood contains hematopoietic stem cells that can be used in bone marrow transplants to treat hematological disorders and blood cancers. There have been over 25,000 transplants done using Umbilical Cord Blood (UCB) and the data from these have indicated that there are less complications when UCB is used; importantly, a reduction in graft rejection and less graft versus host disease.

 For parents to understand all of the benefits of banking their baby’s cord blood, there are two options : public donation or family banking. Many parents struggle with this decision, unsure whether or not family banking cord blood is worth the cost. The best decision is an educated one, banking in either a public or a family is worth consideration.