Cord Blood

StaceWheeler

Ok I'm gonna be a first time mom in November so everything is new to me...any other newbies out there considering saving their baby's cord blood stem cells? Or any veterans out there how have done it? Anybody who's family has had to use it? What bank/registry did you use or are considering using? Just curious.

phdprocrastinator

We didn't.  It's a very personal decision, but at this point cord blood can be used for very few illnesses (and if your child has the genetic disorder, you can't use his/her cord blood for it).  

There are public banks, which we looked into but were denied (MIL passed from an extremely rare and extremely fatal mutation which prevented us from donating).  BUT, the public banks are less likely to have cord blood that matches a child of non-white ethnicity (simply due to lack of donations from those groups).  So, if we weren't white, our calculus might have been different.

abbyful

We did delayed cord clamping with DS and will do the same for this baby. So there's no blood leftover to bank or donate.

TXSparky

We are seriously considering it. We didn't with our first because we thought it treated so few things. Then my nephew needed it. He had a stroke in utero. He lost quite a bit of functionality on the left side of his body. Luckily his parents did bank his. He is part of an experimental program at Vanderbilt now and has been for several years. The treatments he received from the cord blood have helped him almost catch up to the other boys his age. It's incredible.

@abbyful‌ I never thought about how that would prevent banking but it makes sense! I guess I will have to choose one or the other.

hiketheworld

I was just going to start a thread about this! I've been looking into it today as a friend has a cord blood banking donation registry and it got me looking at the website. I was planning on delayed clamping but now I'm not sure what I want to do. I need to look into it more.

sunflwra

We did tissue and blood banking for DD and will do it for this baby as well.  It's not cheap but it's one of those things where if my babies or family could ever use it and we had a chance to do it and didn't- I'd be horribly upset.  You can do plans with discounts for buying storage up to 18 years or lifetime too which helps.

mb314

IMO, private cord banks are a scam. Delaying cord clamping gives the blood to your baby right then, when he/she can immediately benefit from it. To me, that is more important than saving the blood for the remote possibility the baby will need it in the future.

MalachiteDrake

I'll be looking into donating to public bank, most likely. 

PandaCon

I plan to do delayed clamping this with this baby. Hemoglobin in babies is up after delayed clamping and Iron stores are higher as much as 6 months later.  

Like @mb314 I feel like baby should get the blood right away, when they are supposed to have it.

Edit: words are hard.

SweetMelissa5

With my youngest, I delivered at a different hospital than with my first two, and we were given the option to donate the cord blood (at no cost to us); we agreed, but they weren't able to get enough, so it didn't happen in the end. We'll probably try again this time, and hopefully they'll be able to use it.

lauren3717

We saved the blood and the tissue.  It's not cheap, but if he ever needs it, I'll be glad that we took this step.  There are actually a decent number of ways in which it could be used already, and the science in this area moves so quickly that I figured who knows what future uses may be available. 

momtojad

We delayed cord clamping and was told that we may still be able to donate but I wasn't interested.

runningmama14

You can potentially do both.  There may not be enough blood left in the placenta after delayed clamping, but in a lot of cases there is.  You can also still save cord tissue at a private bank if there isn't enough cord blood. 

I don't think we'll be privately banking blood or tissue, but we're still looking into donating cord blood (if there's enough after delayed clamping).

PandaCon

runningmama14 said: You can potentially do both.  There may not be enough blood left in the placenta after delayed clamping, but in a lot of cases there is.  You can also still save cord tissue at a private bank if there isn't enough cord blood.  

I don't think we'll be privately banking blood or tissue, but we're still looking into donating cord blood (if there's enough after delayed clamping).

Good to know!  I didn't realize that.  I'd think about donating it then. I'll have to look into it. 

Edit: quote fail

crizz13

Bumping this since I didn't pay any attention to it when it was originally posted and had only known I was pregnant for a month!

I've been getting emails and mailing about cord blood banking (I'm guessing these are for the public banks since they are free?) and am just curious as to peoples' experiences. I've tried to do some googling but as always, am finding information on both sides.

Also, what is delayed clamping? It seems that this benefits the baby? Do I need to tell the doctors about this ahead of time?

Sorry for the million questions!

mb314

Personally, I think the private banks are a scam. They prey on women and families at a vulnerable time with their aggressive marketing.  This may have been posted in the earlier thread, but I found this article from the Wall Street Journal to be good insight into the business practices of the private cord blood centers https://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303887804579501500366071342.

If you're able to donate to a public bank and delay cord clamping great.  With DS, we chose just to delay cord clamping only and not to collect any of the blood.  We will do the same this time.  I would prefer that DS get the blood from the cord now than have the far off possibility that we may need his cord blood in the future.