Umbilical Cord Blood Bank

umbilical cord blood banking?

has anyone done this, i would like to know the advantages, disavantages, cost, (in california) and any other information you can give me...thanks!

Public Comments

1. Google it, the websites have the cost... its pretty pricey but I'd say worth it. I haven't done it but I'm ttc and I want to.
2. Its very very expensive to do this... Collection kit alone is around 1500.00- 2000.00 and another 125.00 approx. a year for storage. With todays technology the chances of your actually needing that cord blood is slim.
3. it is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo expensive..........because you have to pay daily on it. and i would only do it if your family has a history of diseases, or cancer, and so on. like say you have a child that has cystic fibrosis, and you are not sure if this child will have it or not, but it could in turn save this child and your already born. or sickle cell anemia................lukemia...........things like this. i'd rather start a college fund
4. Advantages many, disadvantages none. Its a great idea to save your umblical cord and the cord blood because it has cells that can be used for your baby's or any other family members treatments in serious medical conditions like cancer, bonemarrow, etc. It is good to save it because you know you have a match.... it is close to impossible to find match if some disease like this strikes your family. It is not very cheap, you have to pay every year for its maintenance and first year pay more for its storage, transportation etc. Its close to 2k during the birth year of baby and close to 500 bucks every year. I would love to save my baby's cord but I am little worried about how to meet these expenses. If I could easily afford, i wouldn't even think twice. Good luck
5. I did it with both of my girls through our local childrens hospital. it was free. you should check and see if they have somthing like this available for you. I just gave it to them though. I don't know what they do with it or why they need it. I'm sure its probably for medical research or to help other people though other wise why would they want it.
6. My wife and I decided to do this because if a child gets sick- anytime in their life- umbilical blood contains stem cells that may be able to cure cancers, degenerative diseases, and all sorts of (currently) incurable ailments. Stem cell research is a vibrant field right now. They are able to cure some things already- types of cancer? But in the near future Stem cell therapy will become much more useful. The downside is definitely the cost. But if you can afford it, you may have a chance to save a sick child's life. The other thing is that you pay the company to store the umbilical blood for you. So you have to trust them to store it correctly, to not go out of business and stuff like that. We went with CBR- cord blood registry- and they have been good. They send out regular updates on the research and how the company is doing.
7. I am due in November. I looked into cord blood banking. It is super expensive--around $2000 just to collect. You also have to pay"rent" for your blood to be banked. It is seen as an insurance policy against diseases. I am not sure how well the "disease curing" technology is. It makes me think of those people who have their bodies frozen and will be thawed when they find a cure for whatever disease they have. We will probably not do it and just use the money for other things (college. braces)for the child.
8. we did this with our youngest, who is now 6. It wasnt available when we had our two older children. I don't recall how much it was initially, but it's $50 a year for storage.