Now that I’m close to the third trimester, my husband and I are faced with a decision about what do with our new baby’s cord blood—the stem cell–rich blood collected from a newborn’s placenta and umbilical cord. Specifically, should we pay to privately bank our third child’s cord blood, or publicly bank it?
We’re debating, trying to decide whether the small chance that the stem cells in her cord blood will be useful to her someday merits the $2,000 expense. And if we go that route, are we selfish for not sharing our baby’s cord blood with others who are in need?
Stem cells, like those in my unborn baby’s cord blood, can be used in autologous stem cell transplants to treat leukemia, lymphoma, or other life-threatening diseases. (Stem cells can also be collected from blood and bone marrow.) Preliminary research suggests that cord blood could also be used to treat neurological damage due to trauma, such as cerebral palsy, although it’s still not clear if this is true.
Banking cord blood doesn’t guarantee it will be usable, though. Children who develop an immunological disorder or cancer might not be able to use their own cord blood for transplants because the blood also contains the same genetic defect or precancerous cells. And approximately 75 percent of the units donated to public banks are discarded or used in research because they don’t contain enough stem cells for transplants in adults.
Is there a right way to store cord blood?
I’ve heard a lot of conflicting advice about how cord blood should be saved. We could either bank it publicly or choose private (family) banking. In other words, we can give it away like it’s a blood donation or we can hoard it for use by our own family.
The hospital where I’m giving birth is directly affiliated with a public cord blood bank, StemCyte. They could, at no cost to me, collect my new baby’s cord blood and store it in a public bank, where it may be of use to someone for an allogenic stem cell transplant. Since StemCyte reports that only 1 to 5 percent of their cord blood samples are used, the odds are good that if we should request my daughter’s cord blood in the coming years, it would be available.
To donate cord blood to a public bank, there is a guide through the National Marrow Donor Program; BabyCenter has posted an excellent summation of the process, too.
Comments (10)
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We were in the same debate a few weeks ago. We researched quite a bit on private banking vs donationg the cordblood. We finally decided to go with private banking (and compared CBR, ViaCord and a few other companies). The concern then was the cost. Luckily, we found a coupon that gave us a discount of $650 on the entire package (coupon code we used was MANGO). Hope that helps.
Forgot to mention in my earlier post that we chose to go with CBR (and got the $650 discount on the total package).
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Joannah
http://windscreensite.com
Me and my friend were also discussing the same thing few months back…. and finally my friend stored his baby boy cord blood with Cryobanks International India.
He is very satisfied now with the fact that he can save his own child & other families with this cord blood in future.
It can be a difficult choice – you don’t want to add to the hubbub of labor – but umbilical cord banking is one we made and never regretted, especially since we have a family member with sickle cell anemia, a disease that can benefit from stem cell transplants.
Amelia
http://www.umbilicalcordbanking.blogspot.com/
We did quite a bit of research and ended up going with ViaCord for private banking – it’s one of those expenses that I don’t regret. We found some discount information at Umbilical Cord Banking Info.
The most important thing when it comes to banking your baby’s cord blood, is to do it upon a physician’s advice in order to get the maximum and up to date information possible on the hows and whys of cord blood stem cell banking.
I am currently researching all the options for my son and daughter-in-law. I was amazed to learn that there may not be enough blood/stem cells to help adults (parents) or more mature children. There is no guarantee. Adults would have to use cells from unknown/public sources. Just want to make sure everyone considering this be aware of the facts. I am going to pay for the cord blood storage because I think it is so important but, it does have it’s draw backs and concerns. So far, Alpha Cord is the least expensive I’ve found. No, I don’t work for any of these companies.
I don’t think there is a huge difference betwen cord blood banking companies, but one physician told me that CBR has the best record in terms of producing the proper stem cells from the cord blood they receive. We went with CorCell because they have our other daughters’ cord blood banked there, and the difference does not seem that appreciable to me.