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Umbilical Cord Blood Banking?

Posted by kdawson on from the banking-on-future-research dept.

Maestro writes "There must be many parents (and soon-to-be parents) here at Slashdot. What are your thoughts on umbilical cord blood banking? This seems like a major question for our newborn; the question is almost as stressful for us as naming the baby. Given Obama's stance on stem cells, the topic is timely. My understanding is that while the current uses for cord blood are limited, the sky's the limit for the future of stem cell therapies. But with the initial cost over $1000, and ongoing yearly fees, is it worth it?"

2 of 409 comments (clear)

  1. Advice we got by Mag7 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Donate it. There's not enough blood in a single cord to be useful for transfusion purposes. You don't need your own cord blood for the expected applications of cord blood (i.e. stem cell therapies).

    It's more useful now to researchers, or even more practical- in combination with other cord donations to treat a patient with leukaemia (or a number of other diseases) now.

    Donate it. Consider it a "pay it forward" situtation.

    Sadly we wanted to donate both our kids cords, but the private hospital we used was not part of the national cord blood bank program.

  2. Re:Our decision by jvolk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yes, we chose to do the same thing. There are several advantages to this, namely:

    1) It is free vs. very expensive

    2) The blood is banked for anyone to use - this means that YOU can use it too if you need it - assuming nobody else has used it already. In general, the likelihood of someone else using your cord blood is pretty slim.

    3) There are a great many genetic diseases for which your cord blood will be of no use - because these cells contain the same defect your child already has.

    4) You get the benefit of knowing you could be saving a child who otherwise may not be saved.

    Of course, another big drawback is that (at least in my area), the cord blood needs to be harvested immediately. If your child is born in the middle of the night, the collection folks obviously aren't working (public/non-profit funding I suppose)...so then your cord blood is gone. Luckily for me, mine was born 11am on a Thursday, so that wasn't a problem.