@rajesh1868: Congrats on the twins !!
I don't know if you should store for one or both, however some info that may help - One of our friends had twins earlier this year and they had banked their stem cells with BabyCell. They had got it done for both at the price of one (approx 70k), seems like there was a special Mother's day offer running that time. You may want to check with BabyCell.
Since we went through the stem cell banking exercise for our hero last year, let me explain our thought process. I have read and learnt a lot about cars from teambhp, hope this post helps some forum members. But please do your own research and reach your own conclusions !
Why do stem cell banking ?
Well, frankly we were initially not interested. I also read an article (see link below) which stated that the American Academy of Pediatrics did not support private cord blood banking, unless there are some circumstances like older sibling has a disease which could be potentially cured with the stem cells:
AAP Opposes Private Cord Blood Banking
We started thinking about it though due to two reasons - the extremely low (but non-zero) probability that our baby may have some illness that would require it (basically we shouldnt ever feel in future we lost a chance - yes, the emotional angle). Second, it seems to be a hot area of medical research, and may one day lead to better treatment/cure for variety of diseases - including the heart disease kind of stuff which is so common in India. So we thought, ok let's go for it, with hope we never need to actually use it.
I actually did try to find out about public banking also, but we dropped the idea since there is no guarantee the sample will be available for your use - it can be given to anyone whose protein match. Also, one of the few players who was doing this had stopped (due to viability), so not sure how many were/are left.
Which stem cell bank company to go for ?
We didnt do much research on this, as by the time we decided we wanted to do it, it was getting close to d-day. We had seen presentations from Lifecell, liked their patience in answering our qs, and it also seemed that they were the biggest player, so went for them.
More on last factor. The whole process is basically a black box - the sample collection, tests done to validate it, sample storage for 21 years etc. As customers, maybe we can go and check out the facility (in Chennai for Lifecell), but most won't do that. So it's basically done on faith, that the vendor is going to do a good job, and be around for a long time !
Lifecell was giving some guarantee in case sample wasnt useable later. Finally, I read that the stem cell regulation laws were still a work-in-progress in India. See the link:
Government sets up panel to regulate use of stem cells - Corporate News - livemint.com
With all these factors in mind, i thought of going with the largest player.
However, there are other factors which others may look into - like i believe some of the players store sample in two different geographical locations, which can give some backup in case of natural disasters etc. I dont think there is much cost variation, though I have heard that Narayana Hrudalaya is cheaper - didn't check them out as we didn't even know then that they do stem cell banking.
Which package to go for ?
These days along with stem cell, the umbilical tissue is also an option. During our time, Lifecell had 4 packages - cord blood only, cord blood + tissue, and two other cord blood + tissue options in which they grew the stem cells to a larger number (X/Y millions).
We went for the intermediate package which had cord blood + tissue, and stored some X million cells - other reason I think was also that they had some additional tests in it. It cost 80K that time. I believe that the packages have changed/improved now - not sure.
What is the process ?
1. Fill up the application form, pay the money
![Big Grin](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.png)
2. To be safe, check with the hospital that the doctors are trained on how to do the sample collection. If not, the vendor should be able to send staff to do it.
3. The vendor will give a box with customer id and some material which needs to be stored in freezer section of the fridge.
4. On d-day, remember to take out the material and take to hospital. Over there, give it to the nurse after checkin.
5. Call up the customer care, they will generally arrange the sample pickup and transport to their facility.
6. After a few weeks, should get some certificates from the vendor which mention the sample quality, confirmation they have been stored etc.