clicky poll: Are you having cord blood collected (for donation or private banking)?

springbeduk2 · April 2014

I searched and saw this was discussed here back in August with some useful comments/thoughts but it's pretty much all different people here now and was wondering your thoughts/plans. I wish we had looked into this more earlier as my preference would really be donation but then I didn't think it was possible since we'll be at a very small hospital, but now it seems like it might've been if I'd done something about it 6 or so weeks ago. At our appt 2-3 weeks ago the MW brought up that collection (for private banking) is an option and DH is in favor of it but didn't do anything about the research for it and so I finally started and now find it's really awfully late to make those arrangements now too. Plus, then, how to pick which company? How long to store it? And will switching it from a private bank to a donation/public resource (which does not currently seem possible) ever be an option?

edit was to fix title.

dragonfly711 · April 2014

No we are not. Even if we wanted to it is too expensive.

megbmeg · April 2014

I really don't know anything about this yet. It seems too early to be researching it, but when do you think is a good time to start thinking about it based on the research you've been doing?

haleyusf · April 2014

I haven't looked into companies yet, but we'll be doing private cord banking. I have a handful of autoimmune diseases that may increase the chances of my children developing those diseases in the future. Cord blood has been shown to be an effective treatment in some cases for these diseases (and many others), so I feel like it's the right thing for our family to do.

SA1112 · April 2014

I've looked into it and would like to do cord blood donation for a public bank but I'm pretty sure my hospital doesn't do it- only certain hospitals collect for public donation. Also from my research I've found out that it's not common for a child to be able to use their own cord blood/stem cells if they would later develop a disease-so I don't see the benefit of private banking. I would rather it go to a public bank for anyone to be able to use. Here is the ACOG committee opinion and the last paragraph goes into detail about why autologous use isn't often possible. https://www.acog.org/Resources_And_Publications/Committee_Opinions/Committee_on_Obstetric_Practice/Umbilical_Cord_Blood_Banking

ball.and.chain · April 2014

I'd do cord blood donation if I could, but the hospital I'll be delivering at does not participate. I don't think the odds of benefiting from private banking are high enough to make it worth it.

MrsDL · April 2014

The hospital we deliver at collects cord blood for public banking, we did that with DS and will do it with this one (I remember the lady from the bank being such an intrusive PIA though).

However we were going to do Via Cord with DS - I filled out the paperwork and actually sent our deposit in. I pretty much just looked at the brochure and wanted to do it, jumped the gun without doing much research. Then I did my research and some of the reasons I decided not to do private banking:

1. The chance you'll actually need it and use it is very small, but the chance of being able to use even if you need it is even smaller based on current research and recs by the ACOG and AMA who neither recommend or advise against it. The reasons included:

A - if the reason you need it is a genetic disorder, the baby's cord blood (we were thinking about his future needs, not the possibility it could help us or family members, but that's a pro if you're thinking about it) cannot be used to treat the disorder as it's present in the cord blood.

B - For certain autoimmune disorders, same thing - a decent chance it cannot be used as the disorder is present on the molecular/genetic level.

C - Certain leukemias - same thing, possible genetic mutations present in the baby's cord blood that caused the condition so it can't be used for the individual.

D - obviously there are huge possibilities for treatments, but the science hasn't advanced all that far in terms of stem cells (future accidents involving spinal cord issues as an example) and their use. As advances occur, public banks will expand and it is more likely to find matches or treatments that will benefit a larger part of the population.

E - In 2011 when I had my son, there had only been 150 autologous stem cell transplants from cord blood performed, compared to 14,000 unrelated donor transplants (this is worldwide). So based on those numbers, we thought if we could donate and it is more likely to help somebody else, and unlikely that we'll need it or even be able to use it if we do, why pay the money when we could donate and help somebody else.

I lost my deposit, I think it was $150 or $200 but it was worth it. We then took the money we would have spent and put it right into DSs college fund when he was born. It's a tough call, because it's sort of like insurance imo - you have it just in case, but hope you'll never need it and most likely you won't. After reading this I thought the private banks are real money makers for the companies (with good reason), but the cons didn't outweigh the cost when I looked at the fact that the "what if" scenarios didn't produce a good chance we'd ever be able to use our own cord blood even if we needed it for him.

mtaylor404 · April 2014

I voted no because we plan to delay cord clamping if possible

springbeduk2 · April 2014

megbmeg said:

I really don't know anything about this yet. It seems too early to be researching it, but when do you think is a good time to start thinking about it based on the research you've been doing?

@megbmeg It seems like the ideal time to have decided and to make arrangements is between 20-some (28?) weeks and by 34 weeks. For donation when the hospital itself doesn't already have arrangements and you have to get a mail-in program, all but one that I found said they only register/accept donors up to the 34th week of pregnancy. For private banks I didn't find such specific details but some sites advertise that they take late registrations with no fee hinting that others may charge a rush fee if you sign up too close to due date.

Researching it could be a good diversion to pesky early 1st-tri PGAL brain if you need that and keep you from googling more anxiety-producing things!

Or just a way to spend/waste a lot of time ... there is a lot of info to look at and consider. My brain is hurting a little.

springbeduk2 · April 2014

theresat858 said:

No.

Delayed cord clamping benefits your baby NOW with proven benefits (delay for at least 3 minutes and ideally until the cord stops pulsing).

Cord banking has no proven record of being helpful aside from a few very specific cases, and is basically a money making scheme for the companies who do it. Andplusalso stem cell technologies are advancing so quickly that in a few years if your kid needs your kid's own stem cells, it will be feasible to just generate them from other cells in the body.

I'm leaning towards this now too (though don't know what dh will want yet with additional info) ... the benefits of delayed clamping definitely seem significant, and, as you say, is a sure thing for now rather than hedging against a very rare future possible need. I was hoping that both delay (at least partial) and collection were possible (some articles/info suggest that it is - a delay of up to 2 minutes at least), but I talked to one of the midwives today - (unfortunately my least favorite of them in this practice, and not the one who had brought up the possibility of collection in the first place, but still ...) and she says they usually find it's more like 5 minutes until the cord stops pulsing and they clamp, and that in her experience they can't really wait at all before clamping to collect and still collect enough.

She wouldn't say anything against collection for private banking but was definitely against trying to donate which surprised me. She basically thought it was not worth the hassle/stress and we should just focus on our own baby. I still feel bad not donating, though less so if it really is a choice between delayed clamping and collection rather than a choice between donating and discarding/wasting. Of course there is also still the worry that either this child (less probable for reasons pointed out by pp and in other sources) or a possible future sibling would end up having a condition for which cord blood would help and we will regret (understatement!) not having saved it, but ... it's a teeny chance and you can't insure against everything. If we are fortunate enough to be able to have another child I'll look into this question again at that time and see what options are like then.

@theresat858 I hope you are right in predicting that stem cell technology will keep advancing quickly and opening up more possibilities. I also wish that they could do more with cord and/or placenta tissue as a source now since that seems like a good way to get the best of both worlds - let the newborn get all the blood he/she should and also preserve a source of stem cells (whether for donation or private banking) from the tissue that would otherwise get discarded (other than by people who will encapsulate the placenta or do something else with it - which we were not planning to). Though I suppose even then they'd need some blood with the tissue for testing for compatibility - but maybe that would be such a smaller amount needed to allow for the newborn to still get plenty back. But right now it seems you can only have tissue collected in addition to blood, not instead of, and there are all these cautionary statements that at this time there are no approved therapies/uses of the tissue and the stem cells from it - that it's all still in the research stages at best. Anyway it will be interesting to see how this field develops over the next few years.

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