Cord Blood Banking... opinions

jp2514

Hi Ladies,

I was wondering if any of you did or did not do the cord blood banking. As of right now I'm not sure if we should do it or not. Any advice on why you did it or not would be great.  

Thanks!

g8orell

I'm so on the fence about this! We were just about to pay for it with DD and backed out at the last minute. I'm a PA at Miami Children's Hospital...I was on the heme/onc floor seeing a patient with a reaction to chemo (I'm in dermatology) and I was about 9 months pregnant at the time. I was speaking to the oncologist about the patient, and I asked him what he thought about cord blood banking. He said none of the doctors or PA's in the group did it b/c you can get stem cells when needed and if child needing the stem cells is the donor, you cannot use them anyway. And if it is a sibling, he said the probability of an HLA match (that's when all cells, blood type, etc. match perfectly), is pretty rare and that the chances of getting an HLA match from a stranger off the stem cell registry is pretty good.

With that said...I kind of regret not doing it with DD and I feel like I need to bank this baby's blood for our family (and friends if they needed it).

KT&BG

We were also on the fence.  FIL is a pediatric heamtologist/oncologist, and he didn't actually give us advice for or against - he just said "think of it as another type of insurance - odds are that you'll never need it, but if you do you'll REALLY need it".  Our pediatrician was the one who actually sold us on the idea.  He commented that in addition to certain cancers there was promising research for using stem cells to combat Alzheimers (and I think things like stroke and type 1 diabetes). 

g8orell

It's such a hard decision to make! Try not to let your pedi's and OB's sway you towards it...they get a kick back from the companies! I learned that when I was doing my OB rotation...that's one of the reasons why the companies have you put your OB on your registration paper. Back in 2005 (when I did my rotations), they were getting about $200-400 per baby that banked, not sure what it is now.

GenaAndJosh

Ditto PP, except my FIL is not a dr.  I spoke to my hematologist/oncologist and Pedi, we took it like an insurance plan.  With family history, I felt more secure in knowing that it was there just in case.  I feel better that we have it, and will most likely do it in the future as well.

MellyMelB

GenaAndJosh:

With family history, I felt more secure in knowing that it was there just in case.  I feel better that we have it, and will most likely do it in the future as well.

This! We banked Sophia's cord blood and will be banking this baby's as well.

MrsJOSEnADRI

We were also on the fence about this.  You can't just go by the marketing. In that case, you would even bank menstrual blood (yes, I saw a company's website that does this).  The independent research can give you a better idea - Here is an article from the American Academy of Pediatrics:  https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/119/1/165

Like the pp's mentioned, you have to see it like insurance.  You may never need to claim it, but it's there in case you need it and, I'd like to add, you can never be sure if it will work for you/your family.  

We would like to donate it for research or for public banking.  I'll be discussing this with my doc next visit b/c I know South Miami accepts the donations, but I'm not sure about Baptist.   

jp2514

Thanks ladies... I'm going to go the doctor today so I will ask what his opinions are on it.

I'll let you know what I decide. 

tna673

I feel like the potential benefits of banking cord blood far outweight the costs. It's a relatively inexpensive "insurance" plan that gives me piece of mind. We banked for our first and will be doing the same for this one.

karukaru

I did it with DS and we will be doing it with this one as well. It's not true that you can't use it for the same child. That depends on the condition. For certain diseases (I think mostly genetic) you can't use the same child's cord blood but for other diseases you can. I rather "waste" the money and do it than need it later and note have it (like an insurance.) If you decide not to do it it would be great if you could donate it but I am not sure how that works.

Also, I am not sure if pediatricians get a kick back but OB's probably do (like the pp mentioned.) Good luck!  

g8orell

karukaru:

I did it with DS and we will be doing it with this one as well. It's not true that you can't use it for the same child. That depends on the condition. For certain diseases (I think mostly genetic) you can't use the same child's cord blood but for other diseases you can. I rather "waste" the money and do it than need it later and note have it (like an insurance.) If you decide not to do it it would be great if you could donate it but I am not sure how that works.

Also, I am not sure if pediatricians get a kick back but OB's probably do (like the pp mentioned.) Good luck!  

You can't use that child's banked blood if he/she has cancer like lymphoma or leukemia, which most banked blood is used for. The other genetic things like MS, etc are still relatively new and have not been proved to work. Some studies are promising, but others are not.