It is quite natural for a woman to have a baby at the age of 36. But it was not usual for Jiang Xiumin, a woman of the Manchu Autonomous County of Xinbin in the northeastern province of Liaoning, who gave birth to a baby girl recently.
Jiang gave birth to a baby girl for the sole purpose of saving the life of her 12-year-old son Song Linyu, who was diagnosed with leukemia last December.
Doctors told Jiang that her son could live for only another 12 to 18 months even if chemotherapy was used. She was also told that the most effective way to save her son was to transplant umbilical cord blood stemcells into his body.
After learning that their own healthy baby could provide the stemcells needed by her son, Jiang and her husband decided to have another baby.
Jiang's case may not be typical but today many Chinese parents intend to preserve cord blood stemcells from and for their newborn babies.
Sources say, more than 2,500 families have signed agreements with a Tianjin-based cord blood stemcells bank, the first in China, to store cord blood stemcells for their babies.
Some of these parents come from the cities of Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing, and Shanxi Province.
Jiang's son has undergone a transplantation and should leave hospital very soon.
Many parents say they preserve their baby's cord blood stemcells for the purpose of possibly preserving their children's lives, even though their children will not necessarily use the cord blood stemcells in the future.
Doctors say the storage of one's own cord blood stemcells can avoid difficulties such as finding cord blood stemcells to match the patient's blood type and can greatly reduce medical treatment fees.
Clinical cases in other countries have shown that cord blood stemcells, stored for 20 years, have been successfully transplanted.
Statistics show that in China, the number of leukemia patients rises by 40,000 to 50,000 yearly with 50 percent being children.
Doctors say that cord blood stemcells are not only good for the child from whom the stemcells come, but also mean a gleam of hope for their parents and relatives.
They explain that among people who have no blood relationship, the probability of hematopoietic stem cell matching is one in 100, 000 and among blood brothers and sisters, the probability is one in four.
Moreover, with the advancement of relevant technologies, the use rate of cord blood stemcells keeps rising among adults.
It is learned that cities of Beijing and Shanghai are also preparing for the establishment of cord blood stemcells banks.
(People's Daily November 15, 2001)
