Is anyone considering banking their baby’s umbilical cord blood? I have received what seems like a TON of information in the mail, at doctor’s offices, etc about it, but cant seem to find an answer to the question: is it really worth it?
As a diabetic mom, I cant help but think of the possibilities as far as if my son develops diabetes, or if there is a chance it could be used down the road to treat or cure my own diabetes…I have attempted to research the topic, but am having trouble locating information that seems unbiased and reliable, as so much of it comes from blood banking companies websites.
Anyone else considering banking the cord blood? Would love to hear input/thoughts on the topic!
We’re going to donate cord blood. We have a very dear friend of ours who is a pediatric oncologist and he has used banked cord blood to save many lives. Donated cord blood has a much lower chance of rejection than bone marrow. While it might be nice to bank the cord blood, my feeling is that if the time should ever come where for some reason my child needs cord blood then I hope that donated cord blood will work almost as well as the baby’s own cord blood. I would rather help people will need my baby’s cord blood for sure rather than banking it “just in case”. It’s a personal decision, but this is how we came to our decision on whether to bank or donate.
There are some cord blood banking companies that just started researching ways to cure type 1 with baby’s cord blood. Just started researching the cure for type 1 I think end of 2010? It’s been a while since I’ve researched it because to me, it seemed like a no-brainer. I’m banking my baby’s cord blood. They say it will have enough DNA tissue to help multiple persons. If some day she does get type 1, then I hope to be able to have all avenues opened up to rescue her. I would die if she was diagnosed with the daily hell that I deal with.
Good luck to you. I could be wrong in my decision, but I’ve learned to trust my gut instincts on things like these.
We found it prohibitively expensive and we think that we could use that money for a lot better uses to benefit our child. Of course, if there is a cure for a disease that can only be done through their own cord blood, then I may regret this decision, but there is still the possibility of using cord blood from public banks and finding a match. I would donate the cord blood, but unfortunately that is not yet possible in Hungary. (It’s possible to receive, but not give!!)
Sharon - Have you found companies willing to accept your donated cord blood? I live in a major metropolitian area and no one will take my baby’s cord blood b/c I have T1 diabetes. It looks like there are actually some federal regulations in place prohibiting banks from accepting donations from mom’s with T1.
Many of my friends who are healthy and free from any sort of medical problems have not been able to find places willing to accept the donation. Its fairly costly to donate (from the bank’s end of things) and it seems banks are actually full (at least with donations from non-minorities… the story is different for minorities).
Hey Natasha, I was actually surprised when we spoke to our ob/gyn about this, that our cord blood will go to the same public bank that all of the rest of the cord blood goes to. My ob/gyn has worked with many type 1 pregnancies and she didn’t hesitate when I asked her if we could donate. Because I haven’t been able to donate blood, I was surprised to hear that it was so easily accepted. My husband is Chinese and I’m Caucasian so maybe this is considered to be “minority”.
I donated my daughter’s cord blood a few years ago and there was enough for 3 donations. This time around part of me is considering banking but the jury is still out on that one.
