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tran_m
09-04-2002, 09:32 PM
I'm considering banking my baby's blood. I have information on 3 registries (CBR- Cord Blood Registry, Cryo-Cell, and ViaCord).

I would like to get your feedback on your experience with cord blood registries- likes/ dislikes/ recommendations/ etc.

Thank you in advance for your comments!

Momof3Labs
09-05-2002, 05:22 AM
Our baby isn't here yet, but I found Viacord and CBR almost equivalent. I didn't like Cryo-Cell because they didn't have transplant history, and they have less accreditation than the other two.

Make sure you talk to your OB and find out if they have collected cord blood before. Viacord only uses the blood bag method of collection, while CBR offers both syringe and blood bag. If your OB prefers to collect via syringe, you might want to go with CBR. Your OB may also prefer to work with one company over another - although mine did not.

We went with CBR, but I could have just as easily chosen Viacord (and probably will for baby #2 - just to spread the risk). Cryo-Cell is much, much cheaper, but I felt like it was riskier to go with them.

Lori
due 10/12 w/ #1

22tango
09-05-2002, 07:03 AM
Just a thought...we were wondering about whether to do Cord Blood too, so we talked with our OB. Some hospitals won't do the collection for you (because of liability) so there may be an added expense to have a 3rd party there to do the collecting. You'll need to check out your hospital's situation!

But she also pointed out that unless your family has a history of the kinds of diseases for which Cord Blood can be of help, it's like getting a very expensive kind of health insurance. The chances of actually using it are very remote for most people, and it might be better to consider putting the $$ into a college fund instead. With all the Cord Blood marketing messages constantly being bombarded at us, we appreciated taking a step back and thinking about what we would be really getting for our $$.

Momof3Labs
09-05-2002, 09:39 AM
I fully agree with that - in our situation, it makes sense to bank. My DH is a leukemia survivor and his dad is currently battling it; my uncle and grandfather (also father-son) both died from leukemia. There is no proven genetic link yet, but we wanted to give our baby the best chance possible, should the link prove true!

Note that if you don't bank, you can still donate the cord blood through Cryo-Cell. You just need to contact them at least a couple of months before your due date. This is free, easy, and riskless to both mother and baby - I highly recommend donating!!

egoldber
09-05-2002, 09:55 AM
You may want to contact your hospital to see if they are participaing in any national cord/placental blood collection efforts. My hospital is part of a larger group of hospitals that are collecting and banking placental and cord blood as part of a nationwide study. We did not plan to bank, but after I delivered they told us that they were able to collect a significant quantity of cord and placental blood and did we want to participate in the study? The way they study works is that the blood goes into a nationwide bank. If (heaven forbid) we should need the blood at some future point (and it was still available), it would be made available to us. But the blood would become part of a nationwide bank and if the blood was a match for a donor at need, then the blood would be provided to them from the bank. This was free, but required a blood sample from me and from DD and filling out a mildly lengthy screening questionnaire. We thought this was a good thing to do, so we participated.

So you may want to ask if your hospital is participating in any sort of similar effort.

HTH,

opus
09-10-2002, 01:40 AM
I researched the banks for months before my dd was born. I found this site the most helpful and extensive.

http://www.parentsguidecordblood.com/ucb2.html

I ended up doing personal phone interviews with 6 different banks. The site offers a list of questions for your interview. In the end, I chose Corcell. I was very pleased with their service prior to and at the time of pick up. They promptly notified me that the blood had arrived and so on.

I would just mention one of the things I found to be very important as you look into this is the shipping issue. The blood must be kept at a certain temp and not all local carriers have the ability to keep it at the right temp on the way to the airport or in flight. Check with the carriers d i r e c t. Often the cord blood registries will tell you the carriers they use will keep the blood at the needed temp, but when you check it out, you might find their is only one carrier available in your area and they do not have the expertise or ability to ship anything that requires monitoring with regard to temp, then the proximity of the cord blood registy facility can become a determining factor.

Hope this helps.