cord blood, cant decide

My Dh and I are trying to decide what to do about the cord blood. We have heard mixed things and opinions and are not sure what to do. It is a lot of money and we were told there would always be something available if we need it, but the likelyhood that we would is slim and then we spent all this money.

Any thoughts

Re: cord blood, cant decide

We are struggling with this decision right now too.

In addition to the financial aspect, I have heard mixed things about the utility of using the baby's own cord blood for a disease in that same child. Sometimes it's not possible to use the cord blood of the baby to treat the baby/child since that cord blood would be considered to have the same problems (such as some cancers, leukemia, etc.). One of the doctors I spoke to said that you often need a near-perfect match, rather than a perfect match, for the cord blood to be useful. He suggested that a lot of people store privately for one child and then do the public storage for any future children for this reason.

The same doctor also noted that once the child hits a certain age (he suggested 8, but I'm sure it varies) you would need at least 2 units to treat the child, so the cord blood you have stored would not be enough, if it can be used at all.

Clearly this doctor was more in favor of the public storage.

We are so confused about private vs. public. At first we were totally set on private - an insurance policy god forbid we needed it... but now I'm lost.

Re: cord blood, cant decide

I'm so lost with this too..

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We did not do it.
For us, the $$$ outweighed the slim possibility of use. Its a personal decision.

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i am struggling with this as well. i like knowing we would have it but i dont know if we can bear the financials of it.

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We have opted not to. If we could have donated to a general pool, we would have but our hospital doesn't do that. This is most likely our only child and most times cord blood is better suited for a sibling, anyway.

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Torn too...DH who is in the medial field doesn't believe in it. I'd rather have it and not need it then need it and not have it.

I just don't understand private vs public storage.

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Private storage= only you/your family can use that cord blood

Public= a general pool that anyone in need can tap into

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We stored publicly for ds. I did A LOT of research before coming to that conclusion. We could afford it but at the same time it's not like we have crazy $$ to burn so at first I almost felt guilty not doing it- like oh I can spend X /mth on my car when I really could have a cheaper one and store blood, etc. etc. etc. you can say that about any kind of luxury purchase you make- but in the end I really felt like that's what the company WANTED me to feel. They push it as "insurance you wish you never have to use" and yeah in some sense that's true but when I looked at the real facts regarding the uses/storage etc. it felt more like buying a really crummy insurance. Does that make sense?

Message edited 4/20/2011 11:54:23 AM.

Re: cord blood, cant decide

we stored for our two older kids and will for this baby as well.

1. The first year is expensive, but the others are very reasonable

2. I pay almost the same for the first year as I do for my car insurance (same for home insurance) and don't plan to use either, but I never want to be with out it.

3. The guilt and regret would haunt me if anything happened in the future. even if they couldn't use it, i could say, well at least I had that option. (My friend's DC was diagnosed with leukemia when I was pregnant with my first, so i knew what I was going to do.) My placenta for this pregnancy came back with abnormal cells for chromosome 12. One issue is that they are more susceptible to cancers. when I heard this, I thought "thank goodness i have DC cord blood for her" (it turns out, she is fine, just the placenta was abnormal cells. - and honestly, my older kids could have this and we don't know about it)

4. Science discovery is exponential. You never know what they can cure 10 years from now - even 5!

Re: cord blood, cant decide

I'm on the fence too. We can afford it but I'm not sure its worth the cost and I've read conflicting things about it being useful for that particular child. I'm leaning towards the public bank (which you do still have to pay for but a lesser amount) for a number of reasons but have not decided yet. I think there will probably be great advances in science in the years to come but that the public bank may be the best balance between utility and cost. I need to do more research

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Yes please let us know. I have one tomorrow so I can ask. I dont know why I feel like this is such a difficult decision.

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I stored publicly with whatever program is at North Shore Manhasset and I did not pay anything at all.

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Did anyone ever get an answer on whether it costs you to donate to the public bank??

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I spoke with my OB yesterday and her thoughts were:

1. if you can afford to do private banking, she thinks it is worth it for the potential benefit
2. if you do any cord banking (public or private) she recommends going with viacord
3. she made it seem like public banking was free, so maybe baby 411 was wrong about the associated cost

We're still wavering between public and private but will likely go with Viacord

Re: cord blood, cant decide

DH and I are not banking the cord blood. With that said, I did want to donate it for research but it's not being collected anywhere in the area.

I mentioned my desire to possibly donate it with the doctor and he basically said "it's all a crock of bologna." He said there is no research that shows it really helps and that if a child were to get sick, you're using the same stem cells which produced the illness in the first place.

Not trying to start drama with anyone that chose to bank the cord blood, it's a personal decision. This is just what my doctor said to me.

Re: cord blood, cant decide

We did it with Viacord. We thought that we would be able to live with ourselves if we spent the money and never needed it, but wouldn't be able to live with ourselves if we needed it and didn't do it because of the money.

I guess you need to think about .... Which regret is worse for you?

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We decided against it. It is very expensive and there is not enough research and evidence out there yet in my opinion to warrant it. Maybe by the time we have #2 there will be better research and we will do it then.

My doctor recommended it, but even as he was telling us about it, he was saying that they are starting to do studies to see if it would work for CP and juvenile diabetes...this means that they don't yet know if it will work for these illnesses or not...if we had a definite answer, we may consider it, but it is a lot of money for maybes.