Saving Cord Blood?

Titi · March 2010

I am having my second baby on Friday & still haven't decided about saving the cord blood. I didn't save my daughter's but this will probably be my last baby. Any of you save it? Thoughts & opinions please?

Thanks.

g8orell · March 2010

I had such a hard time deciding...in the end, we didn't do it. I'm a PA at Miami Children's Hospital and I actually spoke with several of the heme/onc (cancer) doctors there about it while I was pregnant. Out of a group of about 8 doctors/PA's, only 1 of them saved their child's. They pretty much told me it's not worth it. It is good for lymphoma and leukemia (not solid tumors), but they said you can get stem cells and bone marrow when needed with no problem. (usually a first degree relative is a perfect match). Plus there is no research that 10 years down the road, that the stem cells are viable (in theory they are, but in practice, who knows). While I was pregnant, there were 3 heme/onc nurses pregnant and none of them were doing it.

With that said, I still feel like with the next baby I need to do it. I see this little bald chemo babies everyday and it breaks my heart. So I feel like why not...(although it is expensive).

MellyMelB · March 2010

We did. We figured, it cannot hurt and my husband's family has seen a lot of cancer run through it. We went through CBR. Your OBGYN can give you a box or you can call and they can rush it, if you decide to do it at the last minute.

ETA: We will be doing it again when this baby is born.

CJB8 · March 2010

We did it as well. We also used CBR. We ordered the kit about a week before but some hospitals do have the kits on hand. If you decide to do it and go with CBR, I used to be able to send coupons to friends, let me know if you do and I will look for them!

FSUSammy · March 2010

I'm totally pro saving cord blood. We decided with Mikey very last minute. At the time we knew Gary had leukemia or lymphoma, just didn't know how serious or what kind. We didn't want to take the chance. Even if Mikey couldn't help Gary I didn't want Mikey or a sibling of his to be in the position to need a bone marrow transplant if for some reason they could take advantage of cord blood. Honestly its such a small expense for piece of mind. I'd do it again in a heartbeat, especially after what happened with Gary.

Connie102 · March 2010

We decided not to do it with Mila. It's so expensive and we just weren't sure if she'd ever need it/use it and didn't think there was enough studies done to convince us we needed to. We decided to delay the umbilical cord clamping instead. We made sure it was in our birth plan and that everyone knew what we wanted. When she was born they left the cord attached and unclamped for about 15-20 minutes until it stopped pulsating and all the cord blood went to her instead of throwing it away or saving it for later use.

Whenever a pulsating umbilical cord is clamped, 20-60% of the baby's total blood volume is trapped inside the placenta. This blood is usually discarded with the placenta or it's used for cord blood banking. I figured I'd let my daughter have all her blood now instead of saving it for possible use later.

It's a personal choice but there are other options to banking. This is what we felt would be the best for our child.

Here's an interesting article on the umbilical cord clamping if you're interested: https://www.givingbirthnaturally.com/restricted-umbilical-cord-problems.html

Good luck!

booboo1414 · March 2010

We did! I know all the controversy, but I'd reather have it just incase. We used Via Cord, because you can use the stem cells more that once. Where CBR is a one time use only. Again, just incase.

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