Anyone Bank Their Cord Blood

Updated on April 09, 2008
S.L. asks from Chicago, IL
9 answers

Hi I'm 7m pregnant with my second child and I did not bank or donate my cord blood with my first child, however I'm thinking of doing it this time around. Has anyone done this? It's pricey, but I also don't want to regret it later on.

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N.O.

answers from Chicago on

I banked both my kid's cord blood with CBR. Once you bank it, it costs you about 100/year to store. I realize there is a very small chance that we'll need it, but if we do, it's there for us.

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R.

answers from Chicago on

Ditto to what Karen said. We are also going to donate it instead of bank it for ourselves. The info is sparse and not quite certain with banking. We'd rather make it available to a family with known genetic problems.

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J.M.

answers from Chicago on

We did it for both our kids. I feel like it is a form of life insurance and worth the money in the long run if something happened. We banked at RGI (Reproductive Genetics Institute) on Diversey as per the recommendation of my Dr. It think they were inexpensive compared to other options. I delivered at Prentice and it seemed routine there.

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W.

answers from Chicago on

Hi S.,
I am 36 weeks pregnant with my 2nd one also, I am not banking but donating my cord blood, however it took me 5 weeks to figure out where I could donate since the hospital that I will deliver at is not a participating hospital, so if you need the information how to donate, now I have it and I can e-mail it to you, please be advised that if you decide to donate you have a couple of weeks to get the process done, cause they have to have everything ( paperwork that you and your doc have to fill out) mailed in by the end of 35 weeks of pregnancy.
If not, good luck to you and your baby.
Regards,
Leyla W.

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T.C.

answers from Chicago on

We banked my son's w/ CBR. I'm 12 wks. pregnant & we plan to bank the next baby's too. I just feel that the potential future opportunities for using it are endless, & I'd rather be safe than sorry. CBR was very good, very nice. We talked to 2 or 3 of the major banks & we decided we liked CBR the best. Good luck.

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J.R.

answers from Chicago on

S.,

my only advice is, make sure your delivering hospital does this. I wanted to donate, but my chosen hospital did not have this as an option, and it would have meant switching doctors as well as hospitals.

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M.K.

answers from Chicago on

We banked my sons with CBR. It is a little pricey, but we did one lump sum and that brought the price down a little.
I felt that if I didn't do it and we needed it I would be mad at myself.
I did talk with my Dr about it to make sure that she did it. I got the kit from my Dr also. It wasn't up to the hospital but the Dr. Some Drs don't know or want to do it.
It does take a little longer after the baby is born, they will also take a blood sample from you after the birth, then it is your responsability to contact the currier to pick it up.
All this info is in the "kit"

Good Luck to you!

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C.G.

answers from Chicago on

It does not depend on the hospital, just on your care provider. It is a simple thing to do, it comes with instructions so even a doctor/midwife who hadn't done it before should be able to do it.
If I were going to do one or the other I would donate. Cord Blood banking is pretty expensive and despite their advertising there is not a whole lot of evidence in favor of it.

I would not choose to do either of them though- I believe in allowing the cord to finish pumping the blood from placenta to baby before clamping/cutting to get the baby's entire blood volume and this precludes blood collection. Look into the benefits of delayed cord clamping- babies whose cords are clamped late have 30-40% greater blood volume and an easier time transitioning.

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K.

answers from Chicago on

I donated cord blood when I had my first, and am considering doing it with #2 in June. I never really figured out what the point of banking it was unless you have some weird genetic disease that makes it likely to be useful to your kid. I figured the chances of my family needing my child's cord blood were very very small, but that if I donated, at least we could help someone who did. Plus, as you mention, banking is $$

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