Saving the cord blood?

Question

Has anyone done this? How do I go about doing this.. is this something I need to discuss with my doctor, the hospital or an outside service?

Any advice and info will be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

I ended up not going through with it bc it was too expensive but I asked my obgyn an she told me that I go through an outside company like viacord and they would send me the collection kit and that I would have to bring it with me when I came in to deliver and then I would have to get it sent back to the company after the doctor collected it!! It may be different according to your doctor and hospital but that is what I know on the matter!!!

Answer 2

I´ve done my research and personally I'm not doing it.

I know that this will give a chance to your baby if he has some diseases, wich does not run in my family, so that was why i first took the decision.

I think its not really expensive to do it, specially if you have this diseases in your family....

what i have in mind is that medicine goes so far now, and when my baby is 20, or 30, medicine will have advanced a lot, so, yeah, maybe the cord is a good idea, maybe not. (i dont have mine and i am perfectly healthy)...

If you want to do it, first you have to talk to your OB/GYN to hear what he/she has to say.  Then, call a bank and start making decisions, there are many kinds and most of them do the same thing, so, its really your choice and your decision to make!

good luck

Answer 3

I didnt. It is so expensive! I couldnt afford it at the time.

A group of doctors are suggesting that the more parents donate their cord blood the higher chance cord blood being available to someone who really needs it.  

I personally will look into that this time around. If I cant afford to keep it, It doesnt cost me anything to give to someone else to save their childs life.

Answer 4

My brother and his wife just saved their cord blood.  They worked with an outside organization.  I would google around to find the nearest bank in my area.  I guess you need to decide whether or not you want to have access to your baby's cord blood for future use (private banking) or if you want to donate it to a cord blood registry where others will have access to it (public registry).  

There's a controversy surrounding the two types of banking because scientists don't believe that the cord blood is as useful for the child it came from as it would be for other family members and and other people in general.  It's thought that is a child has a develops a disease there is no way to know whether or not those stem cells would eventually develop into diseased cells down the line.  On the other had, when given to another person, be it family member or stranger, the chance of curing the disease and reversing the development of faulty cells is much higher than that of using it for the child it came from.

At the end of the day, it sounds like it's beneficial to save it via private banking organizations that way you can be in charge of what happens to it down the road.  If you want to keep it, you can and if you want to donate it you can.