Enrolment
Only Cell Care offers complete online enrolment. It’s a simple 4-step process that takes approximately 10 minutes to complete:
1. Choose cord blood or cord blood and tissue
2. Select your payment plan
3. Pay a deposit ($150 for cord blood or $250 for cord blood and tissue)
4. Complete medical questionnaire
If you require assistance completing your enrolment please call us on 1800 071 075
To be absolutely certain to receive your collection kit before going to hospital, we suggest enrolling as early as possible. Cell Care will do everything possible to facilitate last minute registrations.
Collection kit
Following enrolment, Cell Care will courier a personalised collection kit directly to your home. This ensures full traceability of your kit from the moment it leaves our storage facility until it returns. Generally, we dispatch your kit once you are 34 weeks or later into your pregnancy. When your kit is dispatched from our facility, you will be notified via an automated SMS to expect your kit in the next 1-3 business days and be supplied with a code to track your kit delivery. If you have not received your kit within 3 business days of the SMS, please ensure you contact our Client Services team.
You need to take the kit with you to hospital so it’s there for the collection process in the birthing suite. Our client services team will call in advance to let you know when your kit will arrive, discuss any specific birthing circumstances you might be planning, and explain the best way to keep the kit stored.
The collection kit contains everything that is required for the best collection to occur. Our purpose-designed insulated courier pack contains temperature stabilisers and loggers to ensure that the cord blood and tissue is transported back to our laboratory at the required temperature.
Cord blood and tissue collection
Collection of cord blood and tissue is performed by a trained Cell Care collector, obstetrician or midwife.
Cord blood collection takes place immediately after the birth of the baby once the cord has been clamped and cut. The cord blood is collected into a sterile collection bag. The procedure is painless for both mother and baby, and takes around three minutes. The cord tissue is collected after the delivery of the placenta.
As we are storing a blood product there is a government regulatory requirement to take a sample of the mother’s blood to test for infectious diseases. If this is not possible at the time of the cord blood and tissue collection, we will follow up to have this taken afterwards.
Transportation to lab
Once the collection has taken place, parents contact Cell Care on 1800 071 075 to arrange for a courier to transport the collection kit to Cell Care. The 24-hour transport pick-up number is clearly marked on your collection kit for convenience.
If you have requested a Cell Care Collector - our collector will arrange the transport of your collection kit to Cell Care post birth.
You will receive a text message confirming the arrival of your baby’s cord blood and tissue at our facility.
Processing and storage
Once we have received your baby’s cord blood and tissue at our laboratory, it is processed immediately. Our Cell Care scientists process cord blood and tissue 365 days a year.
The cord blood and tissue stem cells are then stored at -196 degrees with a cryo-preservation solution which protects them during the freezing process and ensures safe preservation for the future.
Confirmation
You will receive a follow up call to confirm the storage status of your cord blood and tissue.
Following successful processing and storage, Cell Care provides a Certificate of Storage and we inform the mother’s obstetrician or attending doctor of the collection details for their records.
Release of samples
Cell Care has released cord blood samples for therapeutic use in both a clinical and approved research setting. The cord blood units we have released to date have been viable for use – this is the ultimate validation of our quality processing and storage methods.
If you do need to retrieve your cord blood and tissue cells for a medical treatment or a clinical trial, please contact Cell Care. We will assist you in meeting the necessary TGA approval requirements.
Cell Care does not charge to release samples.