Cord Blood Banking......Need Your Opinions

MamaLo1216

Hi -

What is everyone's take on cord blood banking?  The nurses at my Drs office just told me it's a waste of $ and of course I just enrolled and payed for it.  My Dr is on vacation until next week.  Would love to hear what you all think!

 Thanks!

dani2480

Waste of money, unless you have strong reason to believe another family member may need it for an illness they have.

Your baby may never have any issues that require the need for it. And, even if they do, it's very possible that it may be unusable anyway. Either because there wasn't enough stored (and the older the child gets, the more cells are needed), or because you're just transplanting cells with the same genetic defect (which won't help in the case of certain things like leukemia and other cancers). Plus, it's not really known how good the storage methods are, and how long the samples will last and still be viable. So you could pay a lot of money for something that winds up being unusable, for a lot of reasons.

You can also look into donating to a public cord blood bank -- especially if you're a minority, because they have a strong need for that. Your child would potentially be able to access samples from public banks if they did get sick.

Personally, we're not doing it at all. That blood is actually beneficial to the baby when it's born (including preventing anemia and other issues). I plan to have cord clamping delayed until it stops pulsing, so the baby gets the maximum benefit from the blood then.

ctsportsfan23

I would not recommend it.  I would recommend donating it though if available.  It is free and saves lives!

We donated #1 and plan to donate #2s. 

TedandJaclyn

I am doing it, already signed up and paid.  It is not a risk we are willing to take (needing it and not having it).  There have been many cases in the United States where cord blood is used to save a child's life.  We had calls with many different providers and read a lot of literature about it.  Clearly there are no guarantees (although if you need it and for some reason it is not usable, our provider - ViaCord - pays you $25k to search for a matching donor) but we just felt much better having it.  We asked our OB as she has 2 small children and she stored it for both of them.

We also did the cord tissue package along with the blood, that has not been FDA approved yet in the US but it is in use in Europe.  This actually gives you stem cells which are regenerative.  Not sure how necessary the tissue package was, but we had a large discount coupon for the entire package so we just did it. 

I understand the reasons for opting out of storing the blood/tissue, as thankfully most babies never need it...but we just did not want to be in a position where we needed it and didn't have it.  Think it's a pretty personal decision though.

Gismo123

Waste of money....you can't use the cord blood on the child it came from for genetic diseases like cancer so unless you plan on using it for another child it's pointless to keep.  We are doing delayed clamping which gives the baby that extra bit of blood it's denied if they clamp right away.  There are tons of benefits to delayed clamping...do a google search and you'll find tons of information on it.  Goodluck!

JG362009

My husband is a pediatrician and strongly advised against it.  In almost every case, it's worthless to use your child's own banked cord blood because it's likely that it would contain the same mutations.  He said that the only time that it would be worth it would be if you had a full sibling with a known need.  I trust his advice and we're not doing it. 

mrs+harlow

I did an absurd amount of research on cord blood banking before my husband and I arrived at the decision to do delayed clamping.

I've posted my research  several times here on TheBump. My conclusion : private cord blood banking is a scam preying on the emotions of parents....it's a money machine and parents need to research the actual science going on with and behind stem cell research ( stem cells do not only come from cord blood or embryos FYI).

Olive44

We are doing private banking.  I asked my OB about it and she said she definitely recommends it if you can afford it.  It's not that much $ in the long run, so we figured we should do it and think of it as an extra insurance policy.  My OB said there wasn't any benefit to delaying cord clamping more than a minute, so that's what we will be doing. 

mandalinn25

We are doing it, but our situation is different.  We are using donor sperm and have more frozen embryos from the same donor.  So for us it is an insurance policy since we only have half of the genes available for testing/compatibility.

Saying it is a scam is a bit much in my mind, but to each their own.

snoangel79

Waste of money. I've posted a ton about this in the past and you can look it up by searching about cord blood in the subject or going back on my posts. I actually work in cord blood donation (I collect cord blood that mom's donate for a living). I'm also a cancer survivor who went through a bone marrow transplant myself. I would go back and find my posts but I'm a little busy right now with twin newborns <:

monef

mrs+harlow:

I did an absurd amount of research on cord blood banking before my husband and I arrived at the decision to do delayed clamping.

I've posted my research  several times here on TheBump. My conclusion : private cord blood banking is a scam preying on the emotions of parents....it's a money machine and parents need to research the actual science going on with and behind stem cell research ( stem cells do not only come from cord blood or embryos FYI).

Completely agree with everything you said. It is a total scam as far as I am concerned. We will donate to a public bank because we are ethnic minorities. 

wedsept

We did it with #1 and are doing it with #2.  I agree that it is more likely to be useful if you have more than 1 child though, which we always planned for.  I just am not willing to take the chance, no matter how small, that I might need it one day.  If one of my children needed it years from now and I didn't do it, I would never forgive myself.  The initial cost is high, but every year after that is about $125.  

Josie22

It saved my cousin's daughter's life. They banked both kids, and were able to use her brother's for her. So I certainly see the benefit. But we won't be doing it. It's just out of our budget.

DCMerged

I think of it like an insurance policy you will hopefully never need to use. Sure, the chances of using the cord blood is hopefully low, but it isn't that much money over the long run so if you can afford it I say why not. We'll probably do it (just started looking at banks).

laoch101

dani2480:

Waste of money, unless you have strong reason to believe another family member may need it for an illness they have.

Your baby may never have any issues that require the need for it. And, even if they do, it's very possible that it may be unusable anyway. Either because there wasn't enough stored (and the older the child gets, the more cells are needed), or because you're just transplanting cells with the same genetic defect (which won't help in the case of certain things like leukemia and other cancers). Plus, it's not really known how good the storage methods are, and how long the samples will last and still be viable. So you could pay a lot of money for something that winds up being unusable, for a lot of reasons.

You can also look into donating to a public cord blood bank -- especially if you're a minority, because they have a strong need for that. Your child would potentially be able to access samples from public banks if they did get sick.

Personally, we're not doing it at all. That blood is actually beneficial to the baby when it's born (including preventing anemia and other issues). I plan to have cord clamping delayed until it stops pulsing, so the baby gets the maximum benefit from the blood then.

Same here 

MamaLo1216

Thank you all for your responses!  It is really helpful to get your opinions!

Lauren