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May 2015 Moms
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Cord blood banking?

kristaelaine86kristaelaine86 member
in May 2015 Moms
is anyone planning to do this? It's not something I had considered previously. However, my father was just diagnosed with a leukaemia like bone marrow/ blood disorder called MDS. I know the baby may not be a match, but the thing about stem cells vs bone marrow is they don't have to be as exact. Also they say the disease is not hereditary but it seems very much like they just don't know as there are so many different types of MDS. It comes down to an abnormal chromosome. I kind of like the peace of mind in case any of my kids were to ever get sick that it's there, although it's a lot of money to pay out for very unlikely circumstances that it would be needed and a match. My father's hematologist said it was an excellent idea, but it's so costly that I don't know...
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Re: Cord blood banking?

  • angty1111angty1111 member
    we are doing it through via cord. when we asked our doctor she compared it to car insurance. hopefully you never have to use it but you pay for it so it's there if you need it. I think there are different options to make it more affordable like paying all at once instead of annually.
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  • jennygirlmtjennygirlmt member
    My daughter has Severe Congenital Neutropenia and just had a bone marrow transplant (big sister was a perfect match.)

    We qualify for free banking for 5years with via cord bc of this. We have all the stuff we just have to pay the OB $250 to collect and I don't know if we will do it. I'm thinking of delay clamping instead. Both her hematologist and oncologist felt it probably wasn't very functional in our situation.

    MDS is (hopefully was now post transplant) a potential result in adolescence bc of her condition.

    There's a lot that goes into the ability to transplant. Your child's cord blood will never be enough for your Dad. So he'll still need other cells. If another child was diagnosed later it would also depend on their age and size and it still might not be enough.

    You'd also have to look into the fact of whether your child's own cord blood can be used for themselves or if it would be genetically affected too. If we had banked our daughters' 2 years ago it would have been unusable anyway.

    There is also the fact that at this point those types of transplants aren't as successful. There were two other toddlers on our floor both on their third round of stem cell transplants. My daughters' direct bone marrow match has left her thriving and successful so far, beyond the doctors' best expectations.

    It's a tough call with so many unknowns and the extreme cost to balance out.

    I hope you make the decision right for you, and that's it's still possible. It took a while for us to set up but that could be because it was being approved for free.

    Best of luck to your Dad!!

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  • kristaelaine86kristaelaine86 member
    @jennygirlmt thank you so much for your post!! I appreciate all of the info. Those are all of the points I have been weighing. In Canada, it's around $1600 initially and $125 monthly. I just feel that the chances it will be used to help one of our children are slim to none. Also, because of my father's age any kind of transplant is too risky and would likely be fatal. He is taking chemo monthly and they are optimistic he will go into remission and the his counts are really not that bad.

    I hope that is something you Daughter is never faced with. I'll be thinking of you and your family.
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  • CateOfChicagoCateOfChicago member
    We did it for DD and we're doing it for this LO too. We went through CBR. We did cord blood and tissue which is over $2k to start plus the smaller annual fee. I hope to never use it but have it if necessary. I would be devastated if I needed it down the road and didn't do it bc of a few thousand $. It depends if you can afford it of course.

    If you are referred by a CBR customer, they give a year free dues to both you and me. If be happy to be a referral if you need one.
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    Franco Paul born 6/4/15 at 39 weeks.  Mila Francesca born 10/19/13 at 37 weeks.  Both born via C-Section after 6 years of fertility treatments, disappointments and losses. Love them!!

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  • kristaelaine86kristaelaine86 member
    Just realized how many typos are in my PP, my apologies the exhaustion is clearly getting to me! :-)
    Thank you for the offer Cate but I'm in Canada, so if we do it I'll likely choose a company fairly close to home.

    I think the odds that we would need it are very slim. And if one of our children were to ever get sick, bone marrow transplant is always a possible option if there's a sibling match. Having four kids there's a pretty good shot. Where the stem cells would still only be a maybe match, and so small in quantity anyway.
    Also I do agree that if baby were to be ill, chances are the cells are tainted anyway and not useful for her.

    They also can't help my dad for sure. The procedure at his age would be too risky , it's often fatal.

    I think we've made a decision that the odds of needing them, them being a match , and being enough to use are so slim that it's not worth doing for us.
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