Any thoughts on cord blood banking?

[mbfl450]

I am 36 weeks pregnant and still haven't decided whether we should do this? Any thoughts for or against? Does anyone know of anyone who has actually used the cord blood they have banked?

[GoBecGo]

We won't be doing it, because we don't cut the cord until there isn't any blood left in it. I don't know anyone who used banked cord blood, which doesn't mean there aren't people out there of course. I always figured the blood did most good where it belongs, in the baby.

[katelove]

I am against it. We intend to do delayed clamping also but even if we weren't I'd be against. Sarah Buckley has a good article about it on her website www.sarahjbuckley.com

Basically it seems that the stem cells will probably not be in good enough condition to be useful after several years of storage and there may not be enough even if they did survive. Also, as there is no regulation of the industry, there is no way of knowing if the blood will be kept in optimum conditions.

It seems to me to be another way of playing on fear to make money. But that's just my opinion.

[mamatolevi]

it might be worth doing if there's a public cord blood bank near you. But to pay to have it done? nah. I'm not bothering.

I'm participating in a medication study and am having some of my cord blood going to that. I'm also donating my placenta for search and rescue dog training.

[jessjgh1]

I donated the blood to a public bank and our midwife delayed cord clamping. She could not gaurantee that we would have had enough blood for proper storage but was relatively sure she could do it... if we had a known reason for seeking storage I would have weighed immediate cord clamping (guaranteed sample) verses delayed cord clamping. We had no health reasons to really make a case for private storage.
In my case, I like the option of public banks and found a company that I could do this with. Some companies imply you need to have immediate cord clamping and other did not. The company sent me a collection kit that we brought to the hospital with us. This was who we used: http://www.cryo-intl.com/enroll/donating/
The site states this about collection: The attending physician or nurse/midwife will then draw the blood from the umbilical cord after the mother delivers the placenta

Katelove, I'm assuming you might be against banking for personal use under the private paid storage system? Or against collecting blood prematurely (not waiting for the placenta to stop pulsing)? I was happy to find somethign that worked for us- that allowed us to donate AND allowed my dd to have the full benefit of her cord blood.

It has been 2 years since I looked into this, but at that time there were options for families with known reason to bank cord blood to bank their blood in a public storage place w/o fees and have their blood be reserved for their own use... but I believe this was extremely limited.

If mbfl450 is interested I can search my old threads for some of those resources and post again. Also, you have to sign up by a certain time (34 weeks) so they can send you the kit.

Jessica

[jessjgh1]

Oh, we just had to call the company and set up to mail the sample back- it was Fedex or maybe UPS. That ended up being a pain as the hospital was hesitant to let us leave our box there at the front desk. We had decided to leave the hospital before 24 hrs and since it was a weekend the truck was coming after we wanted to check out. This normally wouldn't be an issue for most people at the hospital

I think if I had asked the nurse again, they would have done it (as well as if I had thought to ask them BEFOREhand), they were really interested in the banking option... but my dh said he would make sure it got to the proper drop box so we just did that.
Was a little disorganized on our end, but we were under no obligation to send it back if it hadn't worked out, I would have just been a little disapointed.

[AlexisT]

Just a reminder, there are 2 types of cord blood banking.

The first is donation to a public bank. If it's possible (sometimes it can be combined with delayed clamping, or if you have to have a CS, when most OBs will want to clamp and get things closed up ASAP) then this is a good thing to do. This does help people--I know someone who had a stem cell transplant for leukemia. And it's free if your hospital offers cord blood donation.

It is PRIVATE banking that is the issue. Almost no children end up deriving benefit from the banked blood.

I did public donation with my first pregnancy and would do so again. I would never pay for private. It seems like a ripoff.

[jessjgh1]

The one I referred to is part of the public bank for cord blood, even though the company also offers private (paid) storage.
I found the list of donation sites through the US Marrow Donor Program:
http://www.marrow.org/HELP/Donate_Co...d_hospitals.pl
Among other options it says:
"You may be able to donate cord blood through Cryobanks International, which accepts donations from anywhere in the continental United States to be listed on the Be The Match Registry. Call 1 [phone] to learn about Cryobanks' eligibility requirements and process or visit their Web site at: www.cryo-intl.com/enroll/donating/."

Jessica

[DocsNemesis]

I'd donate publicly, if I could with delayed clamping, but I wouldn't privately bank. The chances of your own child needing their blood is very small. Very very very small. The chances of another child needing it and being a match is much greater (yet still small!). I'd rather see it used than sit in storage for years-and not even know if it'd thaw ok to use if we did need it.

I'd also happily use donated cord blood for my children if they did happen to acquire something that it can be helpful for.

[Belle]

For my oldest (hospital birth)we donated to a public bank. The red cross was very persistant when I was in labor. We wanted to delay cord clamping and the OB lied to us and said that would be okay. After the birth the OB cut the cord right away and was VERY agressive at getting the placenta out now. She passed the placenta off to the Red cross lady very quickly.

I didn't want to go through that again the second time around. Our 2nd baby got all the benefits of her own cord blood right away. I much prefered it this way.

[Pat899]

I am against it. The baby should get the benefit of its blood so we delay cord clamping and there is nothing left to bank.

[Turquesa]

According to Cryobanks International, you can donate your cord blood to their public bank regardless of when you have your cord clamped.

I learned this through personal correspondence when I was looking into this option.

[katelove]

Originally Posted by jessjgh1

Katelove, I'm assuming you might be against banking for personal use under the private paid storage system? Or against collecting blood prematurely (not waiting for the placenta to stop pulsing)? I was happy to find somethign that worked for us- that allowed us to donate AND allowed my dd to have the full benefit of her cord blood.

Sorry, yes I should have made that clear. I'm all for donation to a bank which will make use of it immediately. Just opposed to a paid, just in case we ever need it type situation. I wouldn't even be opposed to immediate clamping in a donor situation because, for a well, healthy baby, I don't think it makes a *huge* difference. So if someone felt strongly about donation and wanted to ensure a good sample I think that would be a good reason.

Thanks for raising the difference.

[sncmom]

To go against the grain here, I am a fan of private cord blood banking and did so with both my girls. I have a medical background and felt like it was an invaluable resource should we ever be in the unlucky minority who actually needed it. And lo and behold, we actually did. DD2 had a traumatic birth which resulted in a hypoxic brain injury from a true knot in her umbilical cord (obviously nothing we knew about ahead of time, or could have planned for). We happened to be in the NICU at Duke, which is the only place in the country that does cord blood transfusions for this type of injury. While DD2 still has CP and developmental delays, she seems to be doing substantially better than most of her early doctors would have predicted based on the severity of her injury. While we have done other interventions as well, I can't help but think the cord blood played a beneficial role.
I tend to be a planner and a worrier and often try to anticipate the worst-case scenario for any situation. I just thought the only downside to banking their cord blood was financial. If we need it, how fantastic that we have these potentially life-saving cells that we wouldn't be able to get anywhere else. If we don't need it, we just lose money.
Just my 2 cents. We used CBR (based in part on Dr. Sears' rec), they can send the necessary collection equipment overnight if need be.

[Gmomm]

We did it for DS#1 and will for DS#2 - we did CBR for the first and are doing Stemcyte for #2 - mainly as a hedge if one went bankrupt or had issues. Likely we will never need but I think we did it hoping that because we banked it we'd never need it. It is pricy but for us we went the hand me down route on baby furniture and other items and felt like we could fit into our budget.

[gini1313]

Originally Posted by jessjgh1

It has been 2 years since I looked into this, but at that time there were options for families with known reason to bank cord blood to bank their blood in a public storage place w/o fees and have their blood be reserved for their own use... but I believe this was extremely limited.

Just in case anyone is in that situation... I did that with Cord Blood Registry. I was less than two years in remission with Lymphoma when Dd was born. My insurance plan wouldn't pay for me to harvest my own cells (to save, which is what my oncologist thought was the best insurance in case I relapsed), and we couldn't afford it on our own. My oncologist said that using the cord blood cells would be second in line for a transplant if I relapsed.

I applied for the CBR program and was approved. It was really easy, I had some paperwork to fill out, and my oncologist had to fill something out with the details of my disease/remission. They sent me a kit and all we had to pay for was shipping, which they arranged and cost about $150. They will store it indefinitely for my use. It was really nice because they assigned me a case worker and treated me just like I was a paying customer. I didn't feel at all like I got lesser treatment because I was in a "charity" program.

If someone else in my family were to need it, I would need to pay all the fees that we would have paid to have it collected if we weren't in the program. I figure if my kids need that blood, I will figure out a way to pay the fees. I am 5 years in remission (next month!!!) now, so am much more comfortable with the risks, but it sure was nice knowing it was there in case I needed it.

I didn't have what I would call immediate or delayed cord cutting, my OB didn't rush my placenta coming out. She did say that my cord was so short that she wasn't sure she would be able to get enough, but she did.

That all said, even with my history, we won't be paying to bank this it this time. It is a really lot of money. If we had extra money just floating around, I would probably do it just because... but we don't. And, when ds was born (6 years ago), we weren't in an area where a public donation was an option. I haven't looked into it this time, though.

[soso-lynn]

Cord blood can be collected even if you delay clamping and there should be a sufficient amount regardless. Many doctors might not be aware of that so you have to discuss it in advance and be adamant about it.