I’m sure most of you have seen the heart-wrenching commercials showing a precious young life being saved by the miracle of cord blood. (I’m going to assume that you know what cord blood is for this post, and if you don’t, encourage you to read this quick definition.)
Between those commercials and the few pamphlets I’ve received in the mail, this is what I believed cord blood banking to be: Simply put, I would pay a fee to have a company store the blood from my child’s umbilical cord to be used in the event that child or a sibling develop a life threatening disease. The cord blood could potentially cure the disease and my child. Did you know that is partially, if not mostly, untrue?
Let me go back a step and first talk about the two different types of banking. The first is public banking which is free, and is simply a donation you are making for someone in need to use in the future. Private banking costs thousands of dollars and is stored for only your families use. So just learning about CB, public banking sounds great but isn’t what I’m wanting. I’m wanting the miracle blood that I can keep for my child if he needs it, which would be private banking.
I knew this was something we were very interested in, and finally took the time to dig a little deeper and learn more. I could not believe when I found out that if I were to bank Brady’s CB and at age 4 he develops leukemia, he would not be able to use his own CB. CB is not for the donator since the stem cells would genetically carry the same disease. His potential siblings could possibly use it though – with only a 25% chance of a match, that is. If something should happen to our baby that cord blood could assist with, the best option would be to go to a public bank where we would have a 75% chance of finding a match. Much higher odds than with a sibling’s CB.
So why in the world would people spend the money for private banking when the chances that they will be able to use it at all is so slim? Why not donate the blood for free and let your healthy CB save another life? The first reason is if your family has a history of disease that could be treated with CB. The second reason is in hopes that research will eventually lead us to more options and that the blood could have greater use for the child as an adult.
I was completely shocked that my whole concept of cord blood was wrong. This is why, like everything else, its so important to read before making decisions and assumptions. As pregnant women we especially get sucked into concepts that will make our baby safer, healthier, smarter. Not to say that many of them don’t, but we should all be making sure that the information being shoved in our face is the full picture, not just the part that makes us feel guilty.
Liz is a just a mom trying to keep it real about how little she sleeps, how often she gets puked on and how much she loves them. You can find her here every day writing about real-mom moments.
Laura says
Good post. I was surprised to learn this fact too when I was pregnant because everyone is pushing for you to do it now. We ended up not donating at all.
Dollface says
One of my best friends did the freezing for the most amount of money….. and the other did the less pricier option….. I am not sure what I will think when the time comes… its just a scary thing to think about if you need it one day… xxxoo
Kristen says
Thanks for doing this post! I was under the wrong impression of what CB can do for us! I haven’t done either for both of my pregnancies but what is a little interesting is that no one ever even mentioned these options to me. I would like to think that when we have our final baby that we will do the personal cb option but it will obviously depend on our finances and if insurance will cover any of that.
Krystal says
Did you know that if you decide that you are not going to bank or cant afford to bank your cord blood. You can donate it!!! My best friend has a little girl who had a rare brain tumor, and they need cord blood for white blood cells to help the sick people. It is something that a lot of people don’t know about…
So if you choose not to keep it, you can donate it! It cost you nothing! And you could be saving someone else’s life!!!
Manhattan Mommy says
We did the Private Banking. We hadn’t thought about it at all, and then the nurse asked us when I was in labor – without all of the facts, we just couldn’t say no!
a H.I.T. says
Husby and I decided to do private cord blood banking because while the baby isn’t a match for a GENETIC disease, there are many things that they baby can pick up over time that the cord blood will be a perfect match for… AND, the cord blood from our child could (and this is a possibility, not a definite) be a perfect match for either my husband or myself, or one of our other children (if we are so blessed to have more than one) for a GENETIC disease.
There are definite positives to private banking – you don’t have to wait, for one – but disadvantages as well – there is no “sure” that the blood will be a match for a genetic disease, such as cancer.
But for us, knowing that the cord blood can be used for a number of other illnesses that are NOT genetic and will be a perfect match for our child was an easy decision for us to make and one we consider well worth the investment.
It is important that people understand all the facts about cord blood banking, most specifically, that it may or may not help your child, siblings or self, depending on the illness.
MCH says
Hi! I always go to your photography blog but nothing has been posted there. So I came here and see you are pregnant! How beautiful. Congratulations. So happy you have entered this happy time!!
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ReRe says
i’ve been pondering this too (little one due in october). i didn’t realize how pricy it was. i made the mistake of signing up via babycenter for info from CBR and they’ve been stalking me since october. i get a call weekly from a guy wanting to “touch base.” ACK!!!
my blog has moved:
rereramblings.blogspot.com
Melissa G. says
This is so interesting to me, thanks for posting this! I guess my idea of CB was wrong too! I didn’t know about donating it, that’s neat. I used to feel really guilty that we never saved our babies cord blood but now i don’t. aahh, thanks for taking that laod off my chest! =)
shelley says
hey there,
i haven’t popped over in a while to say “hi” and see how things in your part of blogasphere. Congrats on the preganancy. I know this is a “hot topic” but being the mom of a special needs child if we knew about “cord blood” 18 years ago when my daughter had a bleed in her brain when she was 10 days old it would have changed her life! there is no perfect answer and it is an expense that might or might not work for an issue but isn’t that what we all pay so much for insurance for? let me tell you i only wish to god that we had my daughter cord blood! food for thought but best wishes give a holla and let me know how you are doing!
shelley 🙂
aapuzzanchera says
i am not pregnant, but I have definitely considered this for when I become pregnant. Thank you for sharing this information, it will make me think twice when I do get pregnant.
Lindsey says
I am confused with your second to last paragraph- are you for donating it, but not privately banking it?
I have donated both my sons’ cord blood to the St. Louis Cord Blood Bank at no cost to us. I knew these facts about private banking and figured if it couldn’t benefit us, why not donate it so others can benefit from it, or even research use it to help with other illnesses.
Liz says
Yes, I am for donating but against private banking. I was just explaining the reason why some people may still choose private banking. 🙂
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Michelle says
I wish it was standard policy to offer donating cord blood. It wasn’t available at the hospital my kids were delivered at. I did delayed cord clamping but wish I could have donated it as well.
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