What is Cord Blood Banking....is anyone considering this?

teacherlindz · January 2011

What is Cord Blood Banking....and is anyone considering this? Why specifically, if you don't mind sharing...

STCJM · January 2011

Blood cord banking is a very bad investment IMO. The up front cost is ridiculous and you have to pay yearly storage costs. You're better off with donating, as the PP stated.

SailorGray · January 2011

We did not with DS and won't with this one. After I told my OB our decision last time, he said, "Good." He then pointed out that it was $$$ and there is really nothing saying that it would really be beneficial. Just another thing that companies try to get worried parents to buy into, IMO.

epphd · January 2011

please consider donating your baby's cord blood. I post on CB a lot and will C&P my standard cord blood reply:

This is my copied and pasted standard cord blood banking response :)I work at the cancer research center that invented bone marrow transplants and is now doing some of the most advanced work on cord blood transplants.

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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. The inital fee is upward of $1500, and you pay an annual fee of ~ a few hundred, I think.

If your child gets sick, in 99% of cases, 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 from the first child - if you have banked it, may or may not be a match. Additionally, 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 and CBR are, IMO, making money hand over fist on the fear of parents. There are rare times and places where it makes sense to bank your child's cord blood, but for most people it is just an unnecessary expense that provides, IMO, a false sense of security.

We donated our cord blood to a public registry because the cell counts were high enough. If the counts were not high enough the cord blood would have been donated to a scientist 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

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And here is a great video about it:

backinpgh · January 2011

How does one go about donating? Do they ask you about this at the hospital or is something you have to arrange for on your own?

teacherlindz · January 2011

This is my question now too. We would definitely be willing to donate, just need to ask my doctor how we go about doing that.

joleneandbean · January 2011

Thank you, epphd!!! I knew this had to be a racket. It's criminal how much money they try to wring out of us because we want the best for our babies. I will certainly donate.

Cilley · January 2011

Nope too expensive, but we did and will donate it. Not sure if this is correct, but I thought that if you or your baby needed it and it was still available, that you can use it.