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