Cord Blood Registry Help

We went with CBR (www.cordblood.com). It was recommended by my midwife and at the time of birth (1.5 year ago), the service and efficiency were excellent. CBR is a private bank so if you put your baby's cord blood there, it'll be earmarked only for him/her. Family can also use it if there is a match, and with your permission. Private banks are more expensive but you may be able to obtain a discount coupon from your doctor. Public banks are considerably less expensive but then the cord blood is made available to the public. You will be able to draw from a public bank but not necessarily your baby's own. Hope this helps. Good luck!

Hi,
Rather than having your cord blood stored, you should consider donating it to a public bank. Most of the time, when cord blood is needed, a sucessful and healthy match is found through a public pool. If your child becomes sick, his own cord blood will not be able to help, since his own stem cells would have the same illness. It is only ideal to help another family member. That is why donation is really the way to go. Talk to your doctor about it. Good luck in whatever you choose!

Hi J.
We used cord blood registry www.cordblood.com. Our Dr. had told us that they are the best and after looking into it, we thought they where the best choice.
I hope that helps a little.
Wishing you all the best~
S.
www.lababycouture.com

I'm slightly confused by what you mean when you say "as well as whether the cells will actually be available to my child, as opposed to being put in a general pool." The whole point of cord blood banking is that their cord blood is for them & their family... I've never heard of it being put into a general pool... That being said, we went w viacord bc our Dr aid it didn't matter & of the major 2 co's thay gave us the bet pricing plan... make SURE you get a $250 coupon (at leat). Good luck.

We used CryoCell for both of our girls. I can't remember the exact fees but I do remember that their cells were available only to them and that they had their own storage facility. Annual fees are something like $50-75.

Congratulations on your baby! The first year is amazing.

Hi J.. First off, I was due last year on March 7th (my daughter arrived on Feb 26th). Good luck! We used Viacord. I did extensive research at the time on the different companies. I called a bunch, and I checked out a website that was a forum for those who used different companies and it also critiqued the companies. I unfortunately can't remember the sites name but I just googled cord blood banking and found it. Basically it came down to Viacord, CBR and Corcell (based on years of experience, funding, customer service etc.) I found that Viacord had great customer service and is now a subsidiary of a major medical company (which is always good).
Good luck wiht your decision.
-A.

Hi Jen,
We started researching each registry and found that Viacord had what we were looking for. They were not merely a storage facility but did research as well. We liked that the representatives were not trying to "sell" as most of the representatives from other companies were. Viacord simply answered our questions. Our doctor also had numerous patients who chose Viacord which made us feel more confident about our choice.

For more information and a list of questions to aske your prospective banks, go to:

http://www.cord-blood.org/id31.htm

Good luck!

our doctor seemed to trust Cord blood registry- if you ask your peditrician- they usually have videos and coupons. M.

i banked my daughter's cord blood with the national registry. it's free and if it's still available, we can use hers. if it's not...then they select the closest match for you. i looked into viacord, but it's so expensive. and i asked the woman at the hostpital that collects it and she said that private isn't worth it and with the public storage, you're also likely to help someone else out if you never end up using it which is a good thing to me.

hope this helps!