Cord Blood Banking

JNR6510 · May 2017

Anyone planning to do this? Does your insurance cover it? For the STMs, did you opt to bank the cord blood last time? Is it worth while? Also if your doctor will be stripping the cord prior to clamping, is this even an option?

My OB practices delayed cord clamping and stripping the cord (basically pushing the remnant cord blood back to baby prior to clamping and cutting the cord). Our insurance will only cover cord blood banking if the baby has a known medical condition that will require them to need blood transfusions. So I expect to have to pay OOP if we do opt for CBB.

upnorthmom · May 2017

I'm a STM and my state (Michigan) has a free cord blood banking program if you deliver at certain hospitals. Their program is more similar to donating blood - your baby won't benefit from their cord blood, but others who need it could or it could be used for scientific research. I applied to the program again this time, but the hospital I'll deliver at is no longer participating in the program. We decided not to seek a private cord blood bank due to the cost as our insurance won't cover it.

wyomama0427 · May 2017

If I'm being completely honest, we didn't do this and we didn't even really consider it.

Jamiern01 · May 2017

We did something similar to what @upnorthmom described. There is one local hospital that takes donations of cord blood. I called while I was pregnant and got the kit then my doctor just did the collection. It will not benefit my baby directly but will help someone else. It didn't cost us anything.

jessieR358 · May 2017

We didn't do it for our first and we won't for this one either. It's expensive and it most likely won't benefit my own child.

stephy_p · May 2017

My sister works in the medical field and told me that they are starting to actually grow organs from cord stem cells. Since my baby has a urinary tract defect, I am going to try to bank his cord blood. I have a feeling insurance won't cover it, because insurance tries to not cover anything it can get away with. I think it may cost around $1k??? I don't know, but if I can swing it, I will do it. Can you imagine a decade down the road being able to have doctors grow a new kidney that is an exact match for you? Crazy!

Carebella · May 2017

Unless there were serious medical concerns for baby or sibling, I think the health benefits of baby having delayed cord clamping and the blood going to them is important enough to pass on donating.

mrs_tacos · May 2017

We plan to do delayed cord clamping, and I was under the impression that delayed cord calmping and banking cord blood were mutually exclusive- if you do one, there isn't enough blood left for the other. Am I misinformed?

heatherlynn321 · May 2017

I didn't do it with my first son, but I'm looking in to doing it this time. CBR has a monthly payment plan, and it seems a lot more feasible now, than it did back then.

klcarr19 · May 2017

I'm on the same boat with @wyomama0427 it never really crossed my mind. Unless the OB recommends it due to a defect I plan on skipping this time as well.

satuttle1014 · May 2017

I'm a STM and I chose to do cord blood banking with my 1st and I plan on it this time too. I used CBR.

Sugargirl1019 · May 2017

I did a lot of research into this! I would love to bank. As a Type 1 DM, there's always the concern of children having it and if cord blood can be used eventually. I was looking into ViaCord and they had their upfront costs plus annual costs laid out:

My insurance doesn't cover any of it though.

stephy_p · May 2017

Oi, that's a lot of money! I didn't even think about the yearly storage cost!

JNR6510 · May 2017

Holy crap @Sugargirl1019! The annual storage fees are crazy!

Since we don't have any known issue at this point that would make it expedient to bank the cord blood, I think we will stick with the OB's routine delayed clamping and cord stripping.

jena333-2 · May 2017

For those of you who did delayed clamping, how long did you delay? Did you have to advocate for it, or is it becoming more common?

mrs_tacos · May 2017

jena333-2 said:

For those of you who did delayed clamping, how long did you delay? Did you have to advocate for it, or is it becoming more common?

At our hospital it is becoming common practice, but I know that is different from hospital to hospital. All my research says delaying 30 seconds to 1 minute is recommended, but no longer than 1 minute or complications can occur.

awildrose · May 2017

I plan to delay clamping until the cord stops pulsing. It's my understanding you can't bank that blood, if any is left.

JNR6510 · May 2017

jena333-2 said:

For those of you who did delayed clamping, how long did you delay? Did you have to advocate for it, or is it becoming more common?

My OB does it as part of her standard delivery. However not all of the OBs at her office do normally practice delayed clamping. Some doctor's in our area are really resistant to the idea, and some are on board. It varies a lot in my area at least.

jessieR358 · May 2017

We didn't do delayed cord clamping based on articles I read. It seems like it provides more of a benefit for premie baby's and can increase jaundice in full term babies. DS was Coombs+ and had an increased risk for jaundice since our blood didn't match. We didn't do delayed clamping (shoot it was so fast DH couldn't even cut it due to complications) but he may have had jaundice issues.
But I think if that's what you want then you should be supported in your decision by your doctor/midwife

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