How Does it Happen?

Umbilical cord blood stem cell collection procedure is easy and harmless for both the mother and the newborn. The process is simple and easily understandable.

Umbilical Cord Blood Stem Cell Collection Process

Umbilical cord blood stem cell collection procedure is easy and harmless for both the mother and the newborn. The process is simple and easily understandable.

• From the 30th week of pregnancy, you enter into an agreement with iVF Riga Stem Cell Center
• On the day of the delivery, you contact the patient coordinator and inform him/her about the childbirth
• Specially trained maternity ward medical staff (a midwife) collects the umbilical cord blood right after childbirth, but before the placental removal.
• The courier delivers the package containing the umbilical cord blood to the laboratory for further processing
• Laboratory specialists carry out umbilical cord blood processing, stem cell extraction and preparation for cryopreservation. At the same time, the specialists carry out a cord blood test to exclude the presence of bacteria and viruses. Until these tests are completed, the frozen samples are stored in a quarantine area, separately from other samples.
• The extracted stem cells are placed in cryopreservation bags, which are then marked with a special label containing an individual code. The stem cells are then frozen at  –100°C.
• After freezing, stem cells are placed in liquid nitrogen dewars for further storage at 196°C. This cryogenic technology allows to preserve stem cells for an almost unlimited period of time;
• After isolating the stem cell concentrate and placing it in the cryopreservation facility, stem cell center issues an umbilical cord blood stem cell certificate, which shows the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the stem cell concentrate.