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3rd Trimester
CORD BLOOD BANKING??
Is anyone storing the cord blood? I heard that it was all a gimmick but I asked my doctor last night and he said that we should absolutely have it saved, just to use a reputable company that has been around for a long time. Just wondering if anyone else is doing it and with which company and how much are you paying.
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Re: CORD BLOOD BANKING??
we are going to donate ours in the hopes that if we need it it will be there, otherwise someone else may be able to use it......
I was going to donate ours to an R & D branch of a teaching hospital here but the limitations are so strict and I did not meet all of them (i.e. had been out of the country for more than 6 months in the past 10 years etc.).
To store it in Canada with a private company is approx. $900 for the first year and $125 per year until the baby is 18 years old.
I did a ton of research and ended up deciding against private banking. I would have liked to have donated to a public bank, but I waited too late to begin that process. What I found most helpful was googling cord blood banking through the published papers/articles option ... not just regular google. I hit upon some very good medical journal research that concluded it is not worth the cost/benefit, unless you have known risk factors in your family for the diseases that are treatable today or those showing signs of being treatable in the future and/or your child is of a mixed racial background (which only means that finding a match through a public bank might be more difficult for your child).
The most reputable company seems to be CBR, which is Cord Blood Registry. They were very professional to deal with, could answer every question I had, seemed to offer higher quality banking and they have a proven track record having had numerous successful uses of blood stored in their bank. I have a number of friends who have banked with CBR and this is who we would have gone with, had we decided to do so. The upfront costs plus cost for 16 years of storage is appx $4,000.
The least expensive company is MAZE Cord Blood Laboratories. The upfront costs plus 18 years of storage is appx $2,000. But, they are a newer company with no proven track record and seem to use lesser quality storage techniques/equipment/etc.
I got conflicting information on how long banked cells are viable. One company told me indefinitely. Another told me none have been stored for more than 30 years, so they do not know at this time viability beyond 30 years.
I didn't want this to come down to a money decision for us. How terrible would I feel in 5 years if Parker had what would be a treatable disease had we only invested in banking? We decided that we didn't meet the risk profile that would justify banking ... then we made the initial deposit in an equivalent amount to start his college fund. He's worth $3,000 (split the difference b/w the cheap and expensive bank choices), but we think his chances of going to college are greater than needing his stem cells. That was my emotional requirement into the whole decisionmaking process.
Good luck. It's a very important decision, so research it until you feel like you have enough info to make a fully informed decision for yourself. Lots of people view it as an "insurance policy" and justify it in that way.
Actually, I read a story on CNN about a month ago about a girl who was helped by cord blood. I can't remember the details, but I thought it was interesting.
We would love to, but we don't have the money right now.
My computer is going crazy (or it is the user) but anyway do you know where I could find more information on that since this is the first I heard about that. Can you tell me where you hear that information and who I would need to contact if that were true? Thanks!
We are doing a free program through Viacord b/c our 19 month old has a brain tumor and is currently on chemo. He had a stroke during surgery to remove the tumor and I wish we had saved his own because of the studies they are doing through Duke with CP/stroke patients. Should the need ever arise for my son to get a stem cell transplant, we want to have the sibling cord blood.
I never imagined we'd need to even think about keeping cord blood... We're both young, healthy people with zero risk factors, yet our child has cancer.
I just started doing the research and there are so many conflicting opinions. I was just surprised that the doctor last night said that we should do it, he is not our regular doctor he is high risk doctor that does our level 2 sonograms, so I was even more surprised that he said that we should do it. I know that some of these companies try to scare you when you are the most emotional but I would feel guilty too if something happened and I didn?t do it because of the money. I found a company that allows you to go on a payment plan for $64 a month for 5 years which isn?t bad, that is the cost of not eating out one night. And being that the military does it for free I would assume that they see benefits of storing it. If cost was not the issue I feel like we would with a doubt do it so i am so confused.
Well, as my husband says, it's kind of like an insurance policy. Some people buy into it, others do not. All in all, you hope you don't need it, but will be grateful if you do.
We decided to bank in Canada with Insception. The lady who we dealt with, is a RN in the L&D at the hospital we are delivering at, so we were able to ask many detailed information about the collection process, etc...
It's more reassuring nowadays, especially since Obama has lifted the restrictions on the stem cell research funding. I believe that stem cell research is definitely the way of the future, but to each their own. I just know that after all the research we have done, we wouldn't be able to live with ourselves if didn't do it because of the money. We just did a differed payment plan for the first year (over 6 months) and then $125/year afterwards for the banking. That's as good as a college education fund if I've ever heard of it...
We wanted to donate our cord blood but that isn't an option at our hospital.
We decided against banking it for our own child just because it cost thousands of dollars and we don't have any of the risk factors.
natural m/c and d&c at 10 weeks - 1/24/2014
DX w/ hetero C677t and A1298C MTHFR - 3/4/2014
I'm interested in finding out more about this too. My bestfriend had a baby last year and is in the military. They paid to bank their cord blood through Viacord, and said that after she gave birth almost no one at their military hospital even knew how to store the blood to send to the company.
natural m/c and d&c at 10 weeks - 1/24/2014
DX w/ hetero C677t and A1298C MTHFR - 3/4/2014
We're banking. We picked CBR, which is what our Dr. recommended but also because they really are quite reputable... one of the largest banks and with the most experience.
In answer to the question about how much cord blood banking costs, here's the cost breakdown for CBR. (It's not cheap, but in essence it's a form of health insurance (for both the baby and other family members), so we strongly feel it's worth it.)
$1625 one-time collection & processing fee
(after using $250 client referral savings code from
https://www.cord-blood-banking-coupon.com )
$150 courier fee
$125 first year storage fee
Plus, we set up an online gift registry through CBR so family and friends can contribute and help with the expense.
From what I understand the two most repuatable companies are Cord Blood Registry and ViaCord. They have the highest success rates with collection and transplants. The bags they use to collect are also FDA approved (well ViaCord's are) and CBR has their own special ones they patented.
At your docs office there should be coupons from the companies. I just got one for 400 off ViaCord and CBR accepts competitor coupons. The cost will be about 1800 upfront and 125-150 a year after that.
We are also doing it through CBR- from all of the research I did as well as discussing it with my doctor, it seems that CBR and Viacord are the two most reputable and longstanding companies for it. While it is true that there is still a great deal of research to be done, I think it speaks volumes that they have already used cord blood to successfully treat 70 diseases and that has been during an era when our government has not backed the research for it. Now that the government (ie: President Obama) has publicly announced the government's support of the research, the advancements in the next few years are likely to be outstanding.
At the end of the day, it truly is a personal choice as to whether or not you do it. For DH and I, we would rather spend the 2K upfront now because it will be too late if, God forbid, the cells could make a difference in the future for our child.