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Have read a brochure about saving the blood from the umbilical cord when baby is born. From what I have read it can help with certain health issues for the child later in life. It sounds like a great idea but also sounds expensive. I would like to know what everyone thinks and has anyone done it? And has anyone had to use the blood for their child or other children and how successful was it?
We've stored our DD's cord blood. It cost us a bomb but we put the baby bonus towards it and DP's mum offered to pay half. Interestingly, because she was a c/s due to placenta praevia and I never went into labour we only got slightly more than the minimum amount they need to make it worthwhile.
I hope we never have to use it, but if we do, it's there for DD and any brothers and sisters.
You can opt for the cord blood to go to a public cord blood bank as well, although that doesn't guarantee it will be available should you need it. And if you want to collect cord blood the cord needs to be clamped almost immediately after delivery, so if you wanted to let the cord pulsate naturally that wouldn't be an option.
We considered it with this bubs but found it would be way to expensive for us. No hisotry of problems in our families so another reason we decided against it.
If your family has a past of illnesses such as leukemia etc i would def get it.
We decided that it was more important for the baby to get the cord blood at the time of birth. To store cord blood you need the cord clamped immediately and this means that the baby doesn't get the blood. If the cord is clamped late, the cord blood that the baby receives keeps their iron levels high for longer and who knows what other benefits there are from them receiving the stem cells which were always intended to flow into the baby at birth.
There have been a few other threads on this recently with really good info on the pros and cons. If I have time I will find a link, but in the meantime feel free to have a search for them yourself.