Umbilical Cord Blood Bank

Has anyone heard of this type of cord blood donation?

My hospital gives me the option of donating cord blood. This is apparently different from cord blood banking since the cord blood can be used by anyone and it is free. I had my daughter's cord blood donated at her birth (thought, why not?) And am planning to donate my son's cord blood at his birth. Does anyone know how long the cord blood would be stored and if there is a chance your own child can use it?

Public Comments

1. It is used for many things and really doesn't get stored for long because they have uses for it. I want to donate but i am not sure if this hospital takes the donations or not so i have to call and ask. I didn't hear about it until recently.
2. I have read lots of diff. articles on this.... And they all seem to vary but this is what I got from the majority... Private you can use towards your family but public goes to anyone.... also I read something that if you baby get cancer or something they can actually not use that cord blood bc it has the same stuff in it as bone marrow and the same bad stuff... I'm not sure how accurate this info is because I have read so many diff. things but hope this gives you somewhere to start thinking... I will prob. donate my childs it helps with research which could help one day might help my children in the future..
3. When you pay to store your childs cord blood the bank will generally store the cord blood for 20 years. You would have to store the blood for your child exclusively.
4. Private banks will store for up to 20 years I believe. Public banks will keep them for a lil less. However, in donating to a public bank, it is likely the units have already been donated to someone for use. So no, you would not be able to track down your own child's donated unit for use, because someone else has likely already used it. As for privatly banking... IF the child develops a disease that can currently be treated by bone marrow transplant or that can be treated in the future using cord blood, they may be able to use it. Stem cell transplants (the medically accurte term for a bone marrow transplant) are done autologous all the time. Autologous means that you use your own stem cells, and the cord blood of the child would be its own cells. However, an 'auto' transplant currently is really only a time extender, not a cure, for most things. Also, currently, one unit of cord blood is not enough to support transplant for anyone larger than a small child. Depending on the age of your child when the disease happens, he may need to units for the transplant. http://www.marrow.org is the National Marrow Donors Program. They can give you a lot more information