of people who need bone marrow transplants can not find a match. Finding a proper match is especially problematic for African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and people of mixed ethnicity. By banking your baby's stem cells, the odds of having a proper match for the baby or another family member improve.

It is recommended that someone who is interested in donating contact the cord blood bank by the 34th week of pregnancy.

The cord blood bank keeps the mother's name confidential, and it protects the privacy of the family. Names are not shared with any patient or transplant center. The baby's cord blood is identified by a number, never by name.

It is the blood obtained from the umbilical cord at birth. The cord blood contains stem cells. Stem cells are the cells that make all of the other cells in your body, i.e., heart cells, neural cells, etc. These stem cells continue to reproduce throughout life unless they are destroyed by cancer or blood disease. If your stem cells are destroyed, you will die unless they are replaced by transplant.

Cryo-Cell is committed to providing superior customer service and the highest quality standards for its U-Cord® service. We are one of the world's largest cord blood stem cell banks, serving over 150,000 worldwide clients. The Cryo-Cell mission has always been to offer this important medical technology service to expectant parents with the highest quality and value. Cryo-Cell is accredited by the AABB, registered with the FDA and ISO 9001:2000 certified.

Donating cord blood for public use or storing it for your family's private use is a personal decision. You can find detailed information in these FAQs that can help you make an informed decision.

It is not necessary to contact Cryo-Cell directly after the birth of your baby, if you use AirNet's service. Simply provide AirNet with the mother's name, home telephone number, client ID and the baby's date and time of birth. AirNet will contact you directly upon delivery of your baby's cord blood specimen to Cryo-Cell. You can choose to be contacted by phone, email or pager.

First, you don't know if the tissue type of the next child will match the previous child. Your children's HLA types come in pairs; in each pair, one is from the mother and one is from the father. The odds of siblings being a perfect match are 1 in 4. A cord blood transplant with a 5/6 or 4/6 mis-match of key HLA types carries less graft-vs-host disease than a perfect 6/6 bone marrow transplant.

Cord blood can be collected in almost all circumstances, including vaginal and C-section deliveries. However, CBUs are screened against a set of exclusion criteria, including cord blood sterility, volume, stem cell count, and maternal medical history. CBUs not meeting these exclusion criteria may be rejected. If a CBU is rejected, Healthcord does not charge the patient for the initial processing. These strict screening criteria ensure the highest quality of stem cells for storage.

Cryo-Cell is a stable, successful and profitable corporation. Cryo-Cell is a publicly traded company (OTC BB: Symbol CCEL). Our financial information is available on the Internet and filed with the SEC. In addition to our cell banking business, Cryo-Cell Cord Blood Bank has an equity position in Saneron CCEL Therapeutics, Inc., which has an agreement with the University of South Florida at Tampa for their research in treating neurologic degenerative diseases.

Donating cord blood is medically safe. Donating poses no health risks to you or your baby. Donating does not affect your baby or your birth experience because the cord blood is collected after your baby is born. If you or your baby experience any complications during delivery, your doctor will not collect the cord blood. There is no cost for donating for public use.

Donating your child's cord blood or storing it for private use is a personal decision that only you can make. If you have a child with leukemia or other disease that may be treatable by transplant and you are pregnant, talk with your oncologist or pediatrician about saving your baby's cord blood. Families may feel a great deal of pressure from the promotions and advertisements they receive from the for-profit private storage cord blood banks.

If you are interested, or someone you know is interested, in donating cord blood, look for a Cord Blood Bank or collecting hospital within or close to your community. There are only a small number of cord blood banks in the United States, so donation to a local bank is not possible in many areas.

Once the donated cord blood is processed and stored at the Cord Blood Bank, it is listed on the NMDP Registry and available to patients all over the world who are searching for a match. The cord blood can be transplanted into any patient whose doctor selects the cord as a match for that patient.

Identifying information is never exchanged between a cord blood donor and cord blood transplant recipient. The identity of the cord blood donor is kept confidential at the cord blood bank.

During pregnancy, the umbilical cord is the lifeline between mother and baby. Once the umbilical cord is discarded after your baby's birth, you lose the chance to preserve the precious stem cells it contains that are an exact match for your child. By preserving your baby's stem cells, he or she will have a guaranteed source of perfectly matched cells in the event a life threatening illness develops and the cells need to be used to combat the disease.