Cord blood banking

[expat]

I'd just like to start a thread for discussion about cord blood banking, it's costs, reasons you would/wouldn't do it, etc.

All I can really find on the net is related to commercial sites and I'd prefer some real life ideas on the topic.

Also, if you can't afford cord blood banking, would you donate your baby's cord blood to a cord blood bank for others to use?

Thanks for your input.

[*Elle*]

I have thought about this alot, as Tanby said it is priceless, but I supose I have never really looked in to it, do you mind me asking how muc this costs to do?? I remember a pamphlet but cant remember the costs as it was a long time ago.

I would do this obvoiusly for the potential to save my childs life.

I would not be able to do this because of the cost as I am assuming it is quite substancial.

I would most deffinately donate the cord blood and I did with my DD and plan on doing it again with this baby.

[Olive]

we signed up to donate our cord blood but because my waters broke at home i couldnt donate, but will sign up again next time!!

[*Elle*]

Thanks Tanby wow yeah I dont think that will be on the cards for us anytime soon, its like you said its not that we dont wnat to do it its that we cant there is no way we could raise that sort of money right now. such a pitty though isnt it.

AJP what do you mean??? sorry just dont know alot about this subject, do your waters have to break at the hospital to be able to donate the cord blood??? TIA

[Pandora]

I didn't consider it becuase I was told that to do it you had to have the cord clamped immediately, not wait til it stops pulsating (which makes sense) so it wasn't for us.

[~Saram~]

We were going to do the cord blood banking with this one but after a little more research decided not too, our reasons against were

1. At the moment the amount of stem cells they get is only enough to treat a 2yr old
2. If you deliver before 38 wks they generally cannot get enough blood to be useful and we were told this bubba would be early.
3. Obviously i you bank the blood bubba doesn't get it and it can contain up to 6mth iron reserves apparently.
4. DS had a very short cord and I was worried that this one would too and we wouldn't be able to get enouth sample (and you still have to pay about $500 even if they don't get enough)

The company we looked at was about $3000 to collect and store for 18yrs ( btw - they have never used cord blood that has been stored longer than 5 yrs I think)

[mummy2Kaitlyn]

We considered doing this and keeping it for Kaitlyn but decided not to . Most of it was cost related and also the fact that it is so knew and I guess we just didnt really feel the push for it ..IYKWIM.

However we did donate Kaitlyns hoping it would help others. And hopefully we will never need it !.

[Melbo]

I looked at it and decided against it. What clinched it for me was this (from the ABC's "Catalyst" website)

... because the genetic problems that caused the child’s disease are very likely to be present in their own cord blood, most are cured using cord blood from another child, supplied from a newly established Public Cord Blood Bank.

If we never have another child, what use is William's privately stored cord blood then? I think I felt that the private cord blood storage people were banking on possibilities more than actualities. I realise that the technology is advancing all the time but it is an expensive form of insurance if you don't have that certainty of being able to use it some day.

My wish was actually to donate to the public cord blood bank but here in Melbourne they only collect during certain times of day and from certain hospitals which I find strange. We were not eligible to donate there either. =(

So I think I concluded that W's privately stored cord blood would be of more use to someone else and not him. It was better off being publicly donated had that been possible.

[*Elle*]

Thanks Melbo I had not heard that, thats very valuable information and makes me feel alot better about the fact ht we can not do this atm.
Thanks again.

[BellyBelly]

Moving to labour & birth

FAQ here too: https://www.bellybelly.com.au/forums...d.php?p=556150

[Schmickers]

We were going to do the cord blood banking with this one but after a little more research decided not too, our reasons against were

1. At the moment the amount of stem cells they get is only enough to treat a 2yr old
2. If you deliver before 38 wks they generally cannot get enough blood to be useful and we were told this bubba would be early.
3. Obviously i you bank the blood bubba doesn't get it and it can contain up to 6mth iron reserves apparently.
4. DS had a very short cord and I was worried that this one would too and we wouldn't be able to get enouth sample (and you still have to pay about $500 even if they don't get enough)

The company we looked at was about $3000 to collect and store for 18yrs ( btw - they have never used cord blood that has been stored longer than 5 yrs I think)

Hi guys,

As someone who used to work in the industry, I think you may have been misled there, Sarah.

The amount of cord blood they get, I can assure you, is more than sufficient to treat children much older than the age of 2 for a wide variety of diseases. I have seen 10 and 12 year old children have a cord blood transplant for relapsed leukaemia with a single cord blood donation, and it is possible for older children to have "double cord" transplants, where they use cord blood from two donors.

Additionally, umbilical cord length has very little to do with cord blood collection, as what you are actually collecting is the blood from the placenta. The cord is merely the passage through which it flows.

However, you make a very good point that the cord blood contains 6 months worth of iron reserves for a new baby, which is the reason why we have chosen not to donate. We would prefer our baby to get its cord blood at birth.

... because the genetic problems that caused the child’s disease are very likely to be present in their own cord blood, most are cured using cord blood from another child, supplied from a newly established Public Cord Blood Bank.

If we never have another child, what use is William's privately stored cord blood then? I think I felt that the private cord blood storage people were banking on possibilities more than actualities. I realise that the technology is advancing all the time but it is an expensive form of insurance if you don't have that certainty of being able to use it some day.

In actual fact, it might be more use than you might think. You are correct in that stored cord blood is not currently of any benefit for the child who donated it, but it could be of great benefit to that child's siblings. Stored cord blood as an approximately 1 in 4 chance of being genetically similar enough to a sibling to be used if that sibling contracts a disease that is treatable with a cord blood transplant. In other words, if we had donated Molly's cord blood, and Olivia then contracted a disease, there would be a 1:4 chance that Molly's cord blood was a genetic match for Olivia. Matched sibling cord blood is one of the best types of stem cell transplants you can have. The ins and outs of genetics means that most parents can at best be only a 50% match to their children (because they each contribute 50% of the child's genes at conception) unless they were already genetically similar before they married (which happens in some close-knit communities). So, in the absence of compatible parents and relatives, siblings are often the best chance of a genetic match, and sibling cord blood can be of great use in that situation.

Cord blood collectors need to be present at the birth and be close enough to storage facilities to transport the cord blood for storage, which limits the number of hospitals that the service is offered at, and makes it virtually impossible at a home birth. And you have to weigh up the pros and cons, the con being that you are depriving your baby of something that research has shown to be quite useful in the short term (cord blood at birth which is high in iron stores), in case of something that is thankfully quite rare happening in the future (a sibling of that child developing a rare condition). That is why we decided against it. However, if you happen to be at a hospital that offers the service, and you have elected to cut the cord early, then I'd encourage you to consider donating to a public cord blood bank, because in many cases, it does save the lives of other children, and if it is not used before it expires, it can also be used in stem cell research, I believe.

[BellyBelly]

Schmickers - Could you post that info in the FAQ post too please? Its in the post above yours I just like to get good posts in the FAQ posts

[Schmickers]

Would you like mt to do an article on it, Kelly? I'd be happy to in my spare time.

[Melbo]

If we never have another child, what use is William's privately stored cord blood then? I think I felt that the private cord blood storage people were banking on possibilities more than actualities. I realise that the technology is advancing all the time but it is an expensive form of insurance if you don't have that certainty of being able to use it some day.
In actual fact, it might be more use than you might think. You are correct in that stored cord blood is not currently of any benefit for the child who donated it, but it could be of great benefit to that child's siblings. Stored cord blood as an approximately 1 in 4 chance of being genetically similar enough to a sibling to be used if that sibling contracts a disease that is treatable with a cord blood transplant. In other words, if we had donated Molly's cord blood, and Olivia then contracted a disease, there would be a 1:4 chance that Molly's cord blood was a genetic match for Olivia.

Hi Michael,

I agree with what you wrote totally. The issue for me was that if we didn't have another child and had stored W's cord blood privately, then it would be of no use to anybody whatsoever. My personal feeling on this is that we could have done more good by donating to the public cord blood bank had that been an option.

I can recommend the Catalyst article to anyone who is interested in reading it. If you would like the link, please PM me.

Regards,

Melissa

[BellyBelly]

That would be great, thanks so much Michael, I have started one on cord clamping and just can't get around to finish it at the moment, so that would be great. email me at info@bellybelly.com.au

[nikbrad]

We looked at it but not from the point of view of storing it for ourselves because of the cost but to donate it I guess. Because Mackenzie was born on a Saturday they couldn't collect it so it wasn't done.

[LizzysMum]

I do have my daughters cord blood stored. I looked at it like it was a bit of an insurance policy and we could afford it at the time. Next time we will not be able to afford it but since there is a high chance that her blood clould help a sibliing I am still glad we did it.

At the time we looked at 2 different companies and one was about half the cost of the other.