Has anyone banked their baby's cord blood?

[babymaking]

I am due in 30 days and want to know if anyone has banked their baby's cord blood and with whom they did it with.
I think its a good idea and if I can afford it I will definitely do it and if it's too expensive I will donate it to the public cord blood bank.

[The[cookie]Doctor]

Hi there!

I can't help you with your query - but I think you should take a look at the following article. It has some invaluable information about delayed cord clamping for the benefit of your baby, rather than storage and donation.

Cord Blood – Why Delaying Cord Clamping Benefits Your Baby

Good luck with your decision and the upcoming birth.

[MantaRay]

I didn't. Instead I did delayed cord clamping which means that the baby gets that cord blood after birth. This helps their iron stores to last longer after birth and who knows what other benefits. I believe that the blood is intended to flow into baby and that early cord clamping is an unnecessary (most of the time) and potentially harmful intervention.

[Lulu]

I was sad to see I could not donate the cells because I wanted to delay the clamping too. In both cases bubs were born about the 3am mark so there was no one to see to the donation anyway.....

[Aimz]

My friend, who has Type 1 Diabetes had her sons cord blood stored. She hopes to be able to use it in the future to help and possibly cure her illness.

She stored it at a cost of $3000 - not sure where though.

Medical researchers believe that there are many benefits of banking your baby's cord blood as it may help to cure illness such as my friend's in the future. IMO it would be beneficial to store the blood if you (or a family member) had such an illness. Apart from that I don't believe that it is necessary and it is much more beneficial for your baby to get that blood if you don't have a real need for it.

[babymaking]

I'll look into that 'delayed clamping" thing. I have never heard of that before. I am keen to bank the cells though just incase. I have seen amazing things being done with them on television. I have found one potential cord bank place called Cryosite however as I am having my baby in the public system they say the only way they can collect it is if I have a caesarian (which I am not planning on and don't want to do for the sake of collecting the blood). Ridiculous if you ask me. I have emailed them to see if there is any other way around it like getting the hospital doctor to collect it for them and then they can pick it up.
Anyone been in this position?

[Aimz]

My friend had a vaginal birth and was able to have the cells stored. She was in the private health system though.

Can I ask why you would like the blood stored? Just curious.

[BellyBelly]

From the above article:

How likely is it that my baby will need stored stem cells?

According to Dr Sarah Buckley, in her well researched book ‘Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering’ (2005):

The likelihood of low-risk children needing their own stored cells has been estimated at 1 in 20,000
Cord blood donations are likely to be ineffective for the treatment of adults, because the number of stem cells are too small
Cord blood may contain pre-leukemic changes and may increase the risk of relapse
Autologous cord blood is only suitable for children who develop solid tumours, lymphomas or auto-immune disorders
All other uses are speculative
And this from the Choice website:

“The most common reason for transplantation in childhood is for leukemia, but a donor’s own cord blood is unlikely to be used. The most appropriate source of stem cells is another person, either a family member or an anonymous stem cell donor.”

Collection is also very lucrative for the collector (midwives get offered training in this too, some decline but some do it). Collectors get paid hundreds for doing the procedure.

[babymaking]

I just read about delayed cord clamping, sounds interesting. I think its a good idea and it has got me in two minds at the moment.