Cord blood banking?

I am due with my first little one at the end of July and have started researching.cord blood banking. I am wondering how many people are choosing to bank. If you are / aren't choosing to bank what made you decide one way or another. And if you are, what company are you using?
Thanks for the input in advance

Cord blood banking?

I chose to bank because I did not want to not have it there God forbid he needed it. We chose to go with Viacord because that is who my OB suggested.

Cord blood banking?

We choose to not do cord blood banking and we are just going to donate it. I spoke to my sister about this and she said that while there is a list of diseases that cord blood is supposed to help there is no real research proving that. The list is actually diseases that the companies are HOPING to help one day down the line. I wanted a second opinion about this so I asked my ped about it when interviewing (wanted to see if he would be real with me or not). He told me what my sister said and stated that OBs on LI recommend it more then any other state because they apparently make a profit off of the recovery (mine charges around $300 just for the cord blood retrieval). I was also told that if your child essential has a disease, most likely the cord blood would have that disease as well and therefore the blood cannot be used.

I just couldn't spend $3000 or so, plus the $300 dr fee, plus $150 a year for something that just doesn't have all it's ducks in a row. I also googled to see what other people said. Between all of these sources we decided to donate the blood.

Re: Cord blood banking?

We also decided to bank. Our decision was based on the fact that we saw it as a life insurance policy. We would rather have it and not need it than not have it and wonder if it could have been used to treat something.

We also went with Viacord.

Message edited 6/8/2013 9:53:23 PM.

Re: Cord blood banking?

Message edited 6/8/2013 10:48:22 PM.

Re: Cord blood banking?

This is a tough decision, and everyone that wrote has viable points. However I do know personally cases where cord blood was used and was successful, although I am sure extremely rare. The chances are you will THANK GOD never use it... but personally having it in case is priceless. For us, it was a no brainer. My husband had a form of cancer that could be treated with blood cord if reoccurance was ever to occur and he also has a strong family history of cancer in general. In my research I oddly found with discussing my issues with the CBR representative that we qualified for a program with CBR to receive free blood cord and blood tissue!! We were floored and obviously very happy! So needless to say we went with CBR. You definitely do not want FREE blood cord the way we got it, but they did have another program that I tell everyone about. If either parent or grandparent of your child is a nurse or doctor you get a HUGE discount I think it was like 700 off or something I forget now. But it definitely helps... so if you or anyone in your family is in the medical field it is something to definitely consider. Either way it is a personal decision you have to make for yourself. Good Luck and Congrats on your little one :))

Re: Cord blood banking?

we choose not to cord bank, b/c their isnt real research regarding cord blood, and curing those disease they list. This was just our opinion

Cord blood banking?

We're doing it; but still trying to narrow down which company to go with. Leaning more towards Viacord.

Cord blood banking?

We did it through Viacord. I'd rather have it and never need it. Odds are we will never use it but it's like an insurance policy. Plus with everything else we spend money on I didn't feel right passing on this. My OB said to go with the cord blood banking but that there wasn't enough research to support doing cord tissue banking so we skipped that one.

Cord blood banking?

i hope this doesn't cause too much drama but my husband and I did a lot of research on this because there is diabetes in the family. At first we were definitely doing it without a doubt. We had the money saved and were ready to go. But this is what we found when we really looked into it: firstly the american pediatric association and the american association of obgyn both do not recommend it. The reason why is a child cant use their own cord blood for genetic diseases because it too could pose a risk for the same disease. Secondly, children are rarely matches for parents and only sometimes matches for siblings. If you research the number of treatments using a child's own cord blood compared to a donor its a huge difference. It was a tough decision but we decided not to do it. After all our research it seemed like a total waste. They recommend you donate the cord blood because the larger the donation pool the better chance of everyone getting what they need. We chose to donate.

Message edited 6/9/2013 5:34:50 PM.

Re: Cord blood banking?

Re: Cord blood banking?

we did a lot of research as well and did cord banking with my ds- we opted not to do the tissue banking as its still the unproven version... My best friend actually received cord blood in her leukemia treatment and while I can't say that's what put her into remission, I can't say it didnt.

We are doing it again this time. If you are thinking about it, I recommend Maze- they are based in Westchester and they are so reasonable- its a flat cost ($2k I think?) and that includes storage for 20 years. They were amazing to deal with

Cord blood banking?

We couldn't afford it. So instead we agreed to donate it. However, in the end, there wasn't enough available to donate.

Re: Cord blood banking?

Nope. I'd happily donate it but in pretty sure stony brook doesn't do it.

Re: Cord blood banking?

Cord blood banking?

Thank you for all the responses.....

Cord blood banking?

One of my coworkers is a pediatric hematologist/oncologist. They told me that it is not worth it. So even though I did it with my first, I prob will not do it now