Plymouth medical company Biovault Family has formed a partnership with The Baby Academy to provide free baby safety workshops throughout 2022.
The sessions are available online via My Baby Academy, the London-based antenatal class provider which provides courses led by a team of health professionals.
It delivers online in real-time on an interactive platform, and gives parents practical advice on topics such as allergic reactions in babies, baby rashes, teething, baby ear infections, and administering medicine correctly to a baby.
Biovault Family is the UK's largest private human tissue bank which is licensed to handle all human tissue types including cord blood and tissue.
It offers personalised cord blood and tissue processing and storage services to parents who wish to bank their babies' umbilical cord blood because it is rich in stem cells.
There are also more than 80 conditions that can be treated using umbilical cord stem cells including leukaemia, cerebral palsy and thalassaemia. Your baby’s stem cells can also potentially match and treat their siblings or parents if required.
Jo Kingston, head of sales at Biovault Family, said: “We are all so passionate about making baby safety accessible to all, and wanted to support a programme that gave provision for this in a fun way.
“The Baby Academy is run by a brilliant team of experts who share their knowledge on all sorts of topics around baby safety and we’re proud to be supporting this initiative. The workshops are completely free of charge to all parents across the UK.”
Based in Plymouth’s International Medical and Technology Park, beside its partners at Derriford Teaching Hospital, Biovault Family has led the way in human tissue processing and storage since 2004. It provides tissue and cellular processing and storage to the NHS and to strategic private partners around the world.
It also has an umbilical cord blood and tissue banking service, a process in which cord blood — a rich source of stem cells — is taken from the umbilical cord of a new born baby after delivery and stored for future use, either for personal use, or by a close member of the family.
Ms Kingston said: “A baby’s umbilical cord is possibly the richest available source of stem cells they will ever have. With cord blood banking, you can collect these powerful cells from the umbilical cord and tissue and store them for use in stem cell therapies.
“It’s believed that cord blood and cord tissue stem cells will soon become a core part of regenerative medicine. These stem cells are currently being used in around 7,000 clinical trials looking at 100s of incurable diseases, such as cerebral palsy, autism, and diabetes. In the future, they could be used to repair your baby’s damaged tissue or regenerate old organs – who knows what else they could be used for in the future.”
