Cord Blood Banking?

So the cord blood bankers are calling me left and right. I’m 18 weeks pregnant and am trying to decide how I feel about cord blood banking. Did you choose to do it?

My friends with babies all roll their eyes and say it’s a scam and not to fall for it, but they don’t have autoimmune illnesses. They’re all healthy young men and women in their late 20s with no family history of disease. Though I’m widely known for not believing Type 1 will ever be cured (particularly in those of us who are decades in to this)…if my child were newly diagnosed with T1 and it was even possible that an infusion of cord blood could reverse or slow the autoimmune response for a year, two years…wouldn’t I hate myself that I turned my nose up at the ~$3,000 price tag? My husband is skeptical, but if I want it, he says we’ll do it.

Talk some sense into me, ladies. Did you do it? Would you do it? Do you have regrets either way? Do you think there’s a future in cord blood treatments?

Congratulations on your pregnancy! What an exciting time!!

Although we considered cord blood banking when my daughter was born two years ago, ultimately we chose not to. Partially because of the price tag and partially because there seemed to be such a tiny chance that it would ever be used.

I liked the idea of a ‘communal’ (for lack of a better word) cord blood bank, which is less expensive and then your cord blood goes into a national bank for whoever may need it- your family included. That gave it a much higher chance of usage over private storage options.

Good luck in whatever you choose-

I hear you on this one Melissa, and have been having similar conflicts myself. I spoke to my physician who had discussed this with haemotologists whose opinion was that they don’t actually contain enough cells to make a difference anyway… so at the moment I’m tending towards no (am at 32 weeks as well currently so may have left it too late to get the ball rolling).

However, like you I thought about it from the point of view of wanting to protect my baby from T1. However our babies only have a 1-4% chance of getting T1 (see my post about this here: http://www.beingdiabetic.co.nz/?p=339)

I have this exact same question! When I spoke to my ob about it she mention the “communal” banking as well, and that sounded like a great option because someone has a great chance of being helped by it, whereas you never know if it will get used for your own children. This also apparently allows you to use the bank if there is ever a need for your own child (kind of like donating blood).

I get so many emails about it, it almost just seems like a big scam… but I know it isn’t and it is important to consider!

I talked about it again with the OB and read up on the communal banking. Apparently, according to all sources I’ve found, the communal banks here in Texas won’t take type 1’s cord blood. >_< Not even in the name of science.