Cord Blood?

Re: Cord Blood?

• epphd member

  August 2009

  I have seen this question so much lately, that I am copying and pasting my answer Hope that's OK?

  *****

  I work with a scientist who is doing amazing work with cord blood transplants and JUST got the scoop on them.

  OK, here is the deal with private cord blood banking: you pay for a company to come in and take the blood and put it in a freezer.  They may not count the cells or type the tissue.  They store it.  For hundreds to thousands of dollars a year.

  If your child gets sick, the cord blood is of no use to them - you can't treat a patient with leukemia with his or her own cells- they need a NEW immune system (that they get from a transplant.)

  If your second child or family member gets sick, the banked cord blood may or may not be a match.  There may or may not be enough cells to do a donation.

  If your child or family member gets sick and needs a transplant, there is a good chance they will find a bone marrow donor in a family member.  About 1/3 of bone marrow recipients find a bone marrow match in the family. If there is no match in the family, an additional 40% of patients find a match in the public registery of bone marrow donors.  If there is no match there, 99% of the remaining 30% can find a match in the PUBLIC cord blood registry. The reason for this is that cord blood matches are much less stringent than bone marrow matches, even though the end result (a fresh immune system) is the same.

  In fact, your chances of finding a match in the public registry are better than finding a match in your privately banked cord blood, plus all banked samples are tissue typed and have sufficient cell counts for transplant.

  Granted, IF your family member gets sick and IF the privately banked cord blood is a sufficient match and IF it is of high enough cell count, it's a great thing.  But the odds of that being the case are very small.  Meanwhile, Viacord is making money hand over fist on the fear of parents.

  We will donate our cord blood to a public registry if the cell counts are high enough. If not, we will donate it to the researcher where I work to continue her work on cord blood transplants.

  Here is another link explaining it all: https://www.babycenter.com/0_private-cord-blood-banking-is-it-for-you_1369773.bc

  
  
  
  I am a runner, knitter, scientist, DE-IVF veteran, and stage III colon cancer survivor.
  

  Report0 Reply
• Loading the player...
• shipoopiisforme

  August 2009

  once again epphd is a font of info, thank you for sharing!
  

  

  Report0 Reply
• 06hoky member

  August 2009

  Thanks for that wealth of information!  Definitly has me rethinking things now!

  Started TTC 11/07 BFP 09/24/08 Miscarriage 09/30/08 First cycle of clomid August 09 Second cycle of clomid September 09 BFP 09/30/09 Miscarriage 10/10/09 Three more rounds of clomid and no success Diagnosed with Unexplained Infertility Abnormal Bleeding for 3 months resulted in D&C but results were normal November 2010 100mg clomid but didn't respond December 2010 forced break for a cyst February 2011 150mg clomid but still no response March 2011 250mg clomid and responded! Ovidrel trigger shot and IUI on March 31 Beta #1 11dpo: 27 Beta #2 15dpo: 85 Beta #3 18dpo 276

  Report0 Reply
• MrsKimandIan

  August 2009

  Wow - thank you for the information!
  

  Report0 Reply
• nikinikinine member

  August 2009

  my old roommate was a sales guy for the Cord Blood Registry. He convinced me years ago that this was/is a good idea. But maybe he's just good at selling things

  It's Always Something
  
  

  Report0 Reply