When I was expecting my first child, I was baffled by the choices my hormonally charged brain was expected to process. Did I want to know the sex of my baby? Would my husband be allowed at the delivery? And really vital ones like should I do pre-natal yoga classes or eat a third doughnut? Which hospital would give me the most TV channels? Thankfully, there was one choice I found easy to make, and that was to store my son’s cord blood stem cells. At the time, there was only one firm offering the service – and it seemed expensive. But the prospect of providing my baby with an exact match stem cell transplant should he need it in later in life, was – to me anyway – a cost worth taking on the chin.

Why did I decide to store my child’s stem cells? Because more than 70 different diseases can be cured using stem cell transplants, which are now commonly used in place of a bone marrow transplant. The procedure provides patients with an exact match, which not only restores their immune systems after cancer treatments, but can also repair damaged tissues. On top of that, experimental treatments using mesenchymal stem cells (those useful in regenerative medicine) include repairing brain damage in children with cerebral palsy, treatments for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis. There are also successes in laboratory tissue re-growth. These techniques could eventually be used to cure heart disease, diabetes and even spinal cord injuries. Today, Dubai’s parents-to-be have more choices of cord blood providers than ever before. So armed with a dictionary of medical terms, we attempt to sift through the options.