have any of you moms done cord blood banking? .. i hadnt even heard of it unilt last year .. when my fiances stepdads sister did it.. she had cancer some years back so she felt it was important to do it .. the past 3 doctors appointments iv been to they ask if im going to do the blood banking.. not that theyre trying to push me to do it or anything but its definatley something they reccommend to all the new moms they have as patients.. iwent to school for biotechnology i know all about cord blood and stem cells and all of that .. im just wondering if its something alot of moms have done before.. to be honest with u if we werent so tight on money it wouldnt even be a question id do it .. but being that we dont have insurance and the hospital bill we will be faced with after the babys born is overwhelming just to think about, unless its sometihng completely necessary we really cant afford to stretch ourselves any thinner wen it comes to money.. my doctor gave me a card for 500$ off but from what iv read in the information they gave me it will still come to about 1700$ if we decide to do it, plus the annual fee u pay for storage. they do offer payment plans but depending on what type of package u decide on it could be anywhere from 160-250 a month
as i said i know what cord blood banking is all about and what the purpose is i would just like to get other moms opinions on it and if its something that alot of you are doing
We did. I wasn't able to afford it but my mom paid as a gift. I am caucasian and DD's father is African so DD's genetic make-up is not common. I think if you have some genetic predispositions to make it more likely you would need the cord blood, I would try to make it work. Otherwise, I don't think it's worth the expense based on the extremely low probability you will need it. Good luck to you!
Thought about it and deicided it was lot of money and not worth it... I thought about donating but the Hostipal I was delivering at did not have a program for that...
I donated with my last kid to the national blood bank. It's free and if our stem cells have not been used I can use them down the road if I need to. If they are used I can use a close match. It was kind of weird to have the lady come in and collect them right at the time of birth but she was really very nice and it's her job. I didn't want to pay all that money for private banking. The national bank was better for me.
Sam,
When I had my daughter, the hospital banked the cord blood right away. If I understood the policy correctly, anyone can access anyone else's cord blood if given consent, but no one pays until they have to use it.
Private companies are iffy so be sure to do your research on this thoroughly before giving anyone money.
The likelihood of you needing cord blood in the future is hard to know but most people do not need it. If you or your husband have a family history of a serious illness maybe your chances are greater... I don't know.
God forbid you DID need cord blood in the future for whatever reason, you will probably end up with an endless list of medical expenses anyway.
I am happy our blood was banked mostly for the reason that another family that may need it besides my own would have access to it and it didn't cost me anything to have it banked, It was going to be thrown away anyway, so why not?
See if the hospital will bank it at no cost if you consent to others' use of it.
yep we too considered it with our 1 st, but just did not have the $.
You can donate it and you don't pay all the fees. We banked the cord blood then money got tight after the fact. Had I known about donating sooner I probably would have gone that route.
Yes, we donated both of our kids' cord blood. It is free. Through research I found out there is a slim chance you will need it and even if you do, it probably won't be a match so we decided to donate it to make it available to anyone.
Cord blood belongs to the baby! Don't clamp or it the cord till it stops pulsing, and all the blood is where it belongs...in the baby. This ensures she'll have proper blood volume and iron stores till she starts solids. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3RywNup2CM&feature=yo... for Penny Simkin's clear description.
We did it. My OB Dr told me he banked all three of his children's cord blood as well. The upfront cost was there but I planned for it and now the annual storage fee is $125/year.
Look into donating. Perhaps if you donate and need it later, you would be bumped to the top of list for receivers :-)
Hi-
We did it with both our children, upon recommendations from a few doctors (my father works in healthcare) and my own doctor, who banked for all three of her children. We paid up front for 18 years of storage for each child and figured they can decide if they want to keep it. It was expensive for us but did it anyway. I hope we NEVER have to use it. But just in case we decided to do it- it's like car insurance, you know?
I agree with Jennie H. I am white and my husband is mixed-race, so that is harder to find in a public bank. Good luck with your decision!
I donated my first daughters. (Kinda dropped the ball on the second childs...so I didn't have time to donate)
I would have considered it if I had the money to do it.
sounds like a great thing.
can't afford it.
oh well.
khairete
S.
We did it bc we could afford it fine but I wouldn't stress about it. A friend is quite well off financially and works daily in the biotech field at a senior level and he didn't think it was worth it... So it's definitely not a slam dunk at all and the donating to the public bank sounds like a great option.
There are public cord blood banks that people donate to - if people are donating, I assume that people can access those public banks if/when they need them. I would suggest looking in to that. If you really don't have the money and you don't have a very serious family history of certain kind of illnesses, then it might not be worth it. Look at some of the cord blood websites to see what kind of illnesses that cord blood is used for - that might help make the decision too.
The private storage is a scam.
Since you work in biotech, I assume you know that any disease being currently treated by cord blood necessitates a different donor - as saving the cord blood will be infected also.
And the applications for growing new tissue don't depend on a match.
I have my daughters in storage I couldnt do my sons because of issues at birth. And no since some issues cord blood are being used for come later they will not be affected. So to me it's worth the money in case either of my children will need it. It cost me about 150 a year. It's the initial costs that's expensive.
We did it for our first, but not our second. We would use it for either of them if they need it.
I'm like you, I would have done it if we could afford it... but we can't so we didn't.
we did store my 5 yo son's cord blood- and It was a little pricey but I thought it was important- my sister in law was then diagnosed with cancer and the cord blood company paid to stuff my next child's blood since she is a possible match with my daughter. good luck.
Nope - not for either of my kids (but I think it was a pretty new deal 10 years ago when my first was born).
