Cord blood is painlessly collected at birth with no risk to the mother or baby, and then stored so that it's ready for use at any time. (Luis Enrique Ascui/Reuters)Alberta's high birthrate has led to another umbilical cord blood banking company opening an office in Calgary.

The province is in the midst of a baby boom with more than 51,000 babies born in the province last year, a record-breaking year and an increase of 38 percent from the number of births in 2000.

A Toronto-based private company called Insception opened the Calgary office two weeks ago. A different company, Cells for Life, opened a Calgary office about a year ago.

Alberta's baby boom inspired the company to open an office in Calgary, said Maureen Kardash, a nurse who runs the Calgary office and speaks to parent and pre-natal groups about the company's services.

"That's our mandate here to try and educate as many parents as we possibly can to the benefits of having their child's umbilical blood stored," she said.

Dr. John Akabutu, who runs both a public and a private cord blood storage facility in Edmonton, said most prospective parents learn about cord blood storage from their doctor or in pre-natal classes.

"It is hope for the future and the fact that science is going to be about to produce the cures for some of these incurable diseases that inflict individuals at this point in time."

Public banking an option

Cord blood transplants are used to treat 70 different diseases, but they are most commonly used to treat blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma in children. Current research indicates that in the future, the stem cells from cord blood could possibly be used to treat conditions like cerebral palsy, heart disease, stroke, and Type 1 diabetes.

Previous estimates have determined that families who bank cord blood have only a one-in-several-thousand chance of using it. But with the number of potential treatments increasing, some experts now say families now have about a one-in-450 chance of using banked cord blood within the child's lifetime.

Storing cord blood with a private bank isn't cheap. The standard fee is about $1,000 for collection and $125 a year for storage.

Calgary obstetrician Dr. Brian Hauk said the price is a drawback for many families. Plus, the chance of actually needing the stem cells is small and patients can access public cord blood banks, he said.

"There is also donor stem cells as well, so if a child ever required stem cells, donor cells could be looked at to see if there was a match and use that. Obviously that's not quite as good as having their own, but there are other alternatives."

The biggest difference between a private and a public bank is that the cord blood stored in the latter is available to anyone who needs it, not just the family that donated it. While some of the cord blood is used to treat patients, much of it is also used by researchers to develop new treatments.