Cordblood Banking

As a pediatric oncology nurse I have a suggestion. I recommend that you donate to a cord blood bank. This will allow your cord blood to be used by someone who may need it now, plus it's free. If one of your children were to need it it could still be there as well as having other options. Many people tout that it's great for if your child gets cancer and needs a transplant. Most children who need a transplant need to have cord blood or bone marrow from a relative but not themselves because the bone marrow is where the cancer is (cord blood just replaces it with the same marrow that "went bad"). So in other words, you would truly be saving the cord blood for only your oldest daughter, even then there is a possibility that it would not be compatible with her. Your children only have a 1 in 4 chance of matching
HLA typing. That being said I think that is an expensive undertaking when there may be a child that could use it now..
Here is the link to the info from the national bone marrow donor website. There is a ton of info there and that can help make your decision one way or the other easier.
http://www.marrow.org/HELP/Donate_Cord_Blood_Share_Life/i...

Also here is a cord blood bank that gives you the option to store or donate. They do tell you why to store; however, bear in mind as I said above that several of the listed leukemias can technically use cord blood. However, typically it is not that child's.

http://www.cryo-intl.com/options/

Hope you find this info helpful.

We were in the same situation with our first...money extremely tight. Money was still tight with our second and we changed our minds a million times before and we literally made up our minds the morning that I went in for my c-section!! We did it and I have such peace of mind about doing it. Yes, it cost alot but I felt we couldn't afford not to....it could save the life of my 2 daughters someday! I recommend making the sacrifice to do it...you'll never regret it....but you probably will regret if you don't do it.

We also didn't do it b/c of money. It's so expensive, and the finances just weren't there. I do know that you can donate the cord blood to be used for anyone who is a match. I regret not doing this. Everything happened so fast when my son was born I dodn't even think about it. I will do this with my next one, though.

We thought about it as well with our first (now 8 yrs old) and did not due to finances being so tight at the time. We had the same reasoning with our second child as well.

Shame money has to play such a big part in our lives.

J. S.

We considered this with our first. I have another on the way and we really haven't even discussed it. We checked around, asked our pediatrician, asked other folks, considered our family health history, etc. Financially, we could make it work, but decided not to because the benefits of saving it just didn't seem to outweight the cost when the chances of her needing it were so small. We figured placing that money into an educational fund to use for college would make more sense. Hopefully we won't regret that decision, but we figured the odds of her going to college would outweight the odds of her needing the cord blood.

we thougt about it...we ultimately decided not to. we read a lot and most doc recomend not to. as my obgyn put it, it is a REALLY expensive life insurance policy.

we banked with Cord Blood Registry (CBR) and I'm glad we did. I have a niece (who is now 13) but she had leukemia when she was 7 1/2 months old and had to go thru 2 1/2 years of chemo. my brother and sister-in-law banked their 2nd baby's cord blood if that tells you anything. It is expensive but when you think about it...upfront is the most cost then you only pay around $125 a year. That is $10 a month for piece of mind. These days it seems more and more kids are getting some type of devastating disease. The cord blood can be used by any family member and donated at any time I believe if you change your mind. I also did TONS of research on the different banks and would suggest Cord Blood Registry (CBR). We had a 2nd child and didn't bank his and I wish we had now. Its a hard decision...go with your gut is what I say.