What is Stem Cell Banking?

A comprehensive review of stem cell banking with Anja Health by Fertile Facts.

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What is Stem Cell Banking?

Stem cell banking is the preservation of stem cells collected from a baby’s umbilical cord and tissue immediately after his or her birth. The placenta, which contains a reservoir of stem cells that can be valuable to the baby and other loved ones for years to come, may also be collected and stored.

Banking and storage of stem cells is a bold innovation in the medical field. For generations, life-saving umbilical cord blood was discarded as waste. But medical pioneers took a series of bold decisions to explore the cells inside the umbilical cord and test them in real patients with desperate needs—and found that they could be effective treatments for diseases like leukemia.

These scientists, while treating patients in new ways, discovered a few facts about the blood remaining in the umbilical cord and placenta immediately after birth.

• Hematopoietic stem cells can form all of the types needed to create healthy blood. Because it contains such a rich collection, scientists are researching how its use in regenerative medicine may be able treat certain disorders—such as liver disease and blood-related illnesses.
• It contains a wide variety of stem cells, each with the potential to treat different medical conditions.
• The tissue contains a large collection of cells, known as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which can be used to treat numerous diseases including neurological and cardiovascular illnesses. They are also used to treat fractures that don’t heal on their own.
• The placenta contains stem cells that have been used in a wide range of medical applications, from improving heart health to treating Parkinson's disease.

Collected stem cells are a match for the newborn baby and may also be matched to siblings, parents, or other loved ones. As more people choose to bank their stem cells, there will be more matches available for transplant recipients who don’t have a close relative whose tissue type is compatible.

Anja Health offers several packages that allow you to collect umbilical cord blood alone, with umbilical cord tissue, and even with the placenta if you want to maximize the life-saving potential for your baby’s future health. We’ll delve deeper into those options in a moment.

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What are the Benefits?

Stem cell storage could one day save the life of someone you love. The stem cells collected after your baby's birth are easily cryopreserved—a medical form of freezing—and then stored for decades into the future. The cells from the baby's cord blood will be a good match for the child and are more likely to match that child’s relatives than those of an unrelated donor.

To date, the FDA has approved stem cell treatment for specific types of cancer and some blood and immune system conditions. But its approval list is growing as researchers explore new applications for these therapies. Researchers are currently performing numerous clinical studies, which could lead to treatments for a wide range of illnesses, including:

• Tissue regeneration after heart attack or stroke
• Diabetes
• Immune system and blood repopulation after chemotherapy or radiation
• Immune system disorders
• Genetic disorders
• Some types of cancer

Because it is difficult to find matching stem cells outside your immediate family, the only way to ensure that a child will have access in adulthood to the same type of cell as another close relative (such as an older sibling) is by banking his own cord blood when he or she is born. The cells you collect today could one day match a family member or person in need of life-saving treatment.

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Getting started with Anja Health

How Do You Get Started with Anja Health’s Stem Cell Storage?

The process of collecting and storing stem cells for use in your treatment requires participation from you, the medical provider delivering your baby, and Anja Health. The following steps will put the entire process into perspective:

1. Select your collection and storage plan: A quiz on the company’s website can help you assess whether cord blood banking matches your family's needs and budget.
2. Receive collection kit: After your purchase, Anja Health will ship you a 100% sterile collection kit that contains everything needed to collect and transport your blood or tissue—including:
3. An FDA-approved Pall blood bag with CPD anticoagulant
4. Complete instructions for your medical team
5. All supplies needed for collection after vaginal or cesarean birth. The kit is sterile both inside and out.
6. Make sure to notify your medical professionals that you want to collect stem cells and provide them with the collection kit at the time of delivery.
7. During/right after birth: Your medical team will collect the umbilical cord blood, cord tissue and placenta (depending on what plan you purchase).
8. NOTE: If your providers determine that it's unsafe to collect blood or tissue samples, Anja Health will give you a full refund.
9. After collection: Anja Health will send a professional transportation service to pick up your completed kit and transport it to the company's secure lab. There, technicians manually process your sample in order to extract maximum number of stem cells from blood or tissue.
10. Note: Manual processing is RARE and makes Anja Health one of the best online cord blood banks available today. This leads to up to 80% fewer red blood cells contaminating samples, which results in almost 25% more stem cells being recovered.
11. Cryopreservation: Each stem cell collection is placed in an advanced cryo bag, tested for infectious disease, and then cryopreserved. You'll receive a certificate of authenticity for your records.
12. If you need your stem cells in the next 20 years: Your certificate will allow you access to your collection immediately. If your child, a family member, or someone else needs the cells for treatment—we can ship them to your healthcare facility.

Because stem cell matching is difficult between unrelated individuals, storing blood from a newborn may be the only way for that child to have access to matching cells in case of future illness. The cells you collect from one child today could later help a family member or even someone you don’t know who is in need of life-saving treatment ten, twenty—or more years into the future.

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Pros and Cons of Anja Health

Pros

• Multiple collection and preservation options (cord blood, tissue, and placenta)
• A comprehensive collection, transportation, processing and storage system ensures safe disposal of waste.
• All needed supplies are included in the collection kit
• Suitable for vaginal and cesarean deliveries
• Payment plan options for up to 8 years
• Collection pickup and transport available throughout the U.S.
• Discounts for twins and triplets (one kit per baby required)
• $150 discount for taking a simple online quiz
• Storage is renewable after 20 years

Cons

• Public cord blood banking unavailable
• Can be expensive: Minimum upfront investment is $199, even if you choose a payment plan. However, they regularly have discounts, so it can be lower!

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The Anja Health Quiz

How do you know if Anja Health is right for you?

For many families, stem cell storage simply isn’t an option because they don't have the thousands of dollars required at one time—especially while preparing for a new baby. Anja Health is making it possible to purchase a payment plan and invest over time: something that could be life-changing when your child needs treatment years later.

This is one of the most affordable online cord blood banks in operation today. To learn more about how they get you started and what to expect should you choose to become a member, let’s look at some important facts about their service.

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Taking the Anja Health Quiz

To help you decide whether or not to collect stem cells, visit Anja Health’s website and take their quiz. Taking the quiz takes only about a minute, and you'll learn if stem cell preservation is right for you—and receive a discount on your collection kit.

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What to do expect with Anja Health?

Anja Health provides a convenient and informative parent portal that offers:

• Stem cell collection tracking: The sample is picked up, transported for processing and documented in the portal by default—all of which occurs without you having to wonder where it went or when the processing will be completed.
• Messaging: Ask questions and get prompt responses from members of the Anja
• A Health care team at any point in the process.
• Help with medical forms or other steps of the process that you may find challenging. Working with Anja Health will always guarantee that you never have to fight health issues alone.

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Cost of Anja Health

You pay a one-time upfront fee of $199 for your Stem Cell Safe. You then choose from three different collection and storage plans with their own upfront fees, or you can purchase the plan on payment installments. The plans start at $35 for eight years, providing 20 years of storage as long as payments are made every month.

• Bean (cord blood): $3,025 upfront or $35/mo
• Bud (cord blood + tissue): $5,605 upfront or $65/mo
• Bloom (cord blood + tissue + placenta): $7,425 upfront or $85/mo

When you compare the cost of other cord blood banks that charge $1,200 or more upfront for collection and processing, it’s easy to see why Anja Health has so many rave reviews from customers.

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The Verdict

Is It Best for Cord Banking and Stem Cell Storage?

More than 40,000 people worldwide have been treated with cord blood stem cells to help treat certain types of cancer and blood diseases. Anja Health can provide peace of mind knowing that you and your loved ones will have access to cord blood stem cells for use in the treatment of 85+ medical conditions if needed. Anja Health provides a convenient way for those on a budget to store their cord blood stem cells. With its easy-to-use platform, the service helps simplify what could be an involved and complicated process into something that anyone can understand and do.

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Anja Health FAQs

Where are Anja Health services available?

Anja Health's 24/7 professional transport service will collect samples from nearly any location in the United States within about 12 hours.

How do I retrieve the stem cells from Anja Health?

If you need to use your stem cells for an approved medical procedure or treatment in the future, Anja Health will coordinate retrieval. Your physician will receive the stem cells directly—so you never have to handle them yourself.

Where are the cord blood and tissue stored?

All stem cells collected by Anja Health are stored in the company’s FDA-registered, AABB-accredited storage facility in New Jersey. Prior to storage processing is completed as close as possible to where they were collected.

How long does it take for Anja Health to pick up the collection kit and transport it to their labs?

Anja Health makes sure that the kit is picked up within 12 hours of collection so that it can be preserved properly.

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Read the full review