cord collection- viacord

[glbb35]

Has anyone ever done this and how exactly does it work? How much notice do I need to give to do this and is it worth it? We are scheduled to be induced this week (I posted on the bitching post before I found this part of the site) as I can't seem to go into labor no matter what I do and I am freaking out about a c-section.

I have heard that cord storage is helpful if you children were to encounter certain illnesses in their life time. My doctor nor his office has ever mentioned it but I happen to read an article about how it could be life saving for your children depending on the illness.

Just wondering. any thoughts, recommendations to share?

B

DS 03, 06, twins 09 and surprise 7/11 and driving me nuts.

[sunshine873]

Ask your Dr if they will collect the cord blood. Then, I would strongly recommend that you consider donating the cord blood to a public blood bank. Private banks are VERY expensive and on the very off chance that your DC would need a transplant, the chances are good that a public bank would have a suitable match. When I asked about it I was told that there are some diseases where a child can't use their own blood, so in that case it wouldn't even help to have saved it for yourself.

http://www.marrow.org/HELP/Donate_Cord_Blood_Share_Life/index.html

[Trigglet]

I asked my OB about this when I was pregnant with DS, because I was being bombarded with marketing materials from cord blood banking companies. She recommended not to go ahead (or if we did want to collect it, to donate it to a public bank as PP said) because it's an entirely new and unregulated industry, so people are just making lots of money without any oversight. My OB suggested we ask ourselves whether we could be confident that he bank was looking after the blood in exactly the right way (at right temps, in a sterile environment, not getting it mixed up with someone else's cord blood etc etc) I couldn't square myself to getting involved in something like that. We don't know anyone else who has done it either.

I think there are such a tiny number of cases in which it might be lifesaving, and the risks associated with giving an unregulated profit-making company the job of looking after the cord blood, that in my opinion it's not worth the huge financial (and emotional) investment.

Just my 2c.

[Melanie]

Alternately, you can let baby have all their cord blood now. It's good for them!

[Trigglet]

Alternately, you can let baby have all their cord blood now. It's good for them!

:yeahthat:

[ashleybama24]

My OB suggested we ask ourselves whether we could be confident that he bank was looking after the blood in exactly the right way (at right temps, in a sterile environment, not getting it mixed up with someone else's cord blood etc etc) I couldn't square myself to getting involved in something like that.

I think there are such a tiny number of cases in which it might be lifesaving, and the risks associated with giving an unregulated profit-making company the job of looking after the cord blood, that in my opinion it's not worth the huge financial (and emotional) investment.

Just my 2c.

Some of these banks aren't even in the US....
We donated ours. Basically if your child has a genetic disease the cord blood will be useless because it will contain those same cells. The chances of being able to use your own cord blood or even needing it are very rare so it just ends up being very expensive. It's better if everyone donates to public banks so that you can find a match if you ever needed to.

[milanya]

I've been researching this too (private bank storage, that is), and based on what I've seen I agree with the others. IMO it sounds like a huge ripoff, but we will donate to a public bank.

I'm amazed you haven't yet experienced their aggressive marketing. For me, it started with the first purchase I made at Motherhood Maternity (which I now hate BTW)

[bisous]

Interesting! What are the options if you are having a planned c-section (it will be my 3rd). Both the idea of public banking OR letting the baby get all of the rich cord blood sound extremely attractive to me. Sadly, I don't know anything about the c-section procedure or if this is (ever) offered.

My medical insurance seems to regulate c-sections rather stiffly and I'm wondering what options are available so I can ask my OB at my next appointment what is available to *me*.

OP, sorry to hijack your post! Great question, obviously.

[TxCat]

Cord blood collection is exactly the same whether it is a vaginal delivery or a c-section.

Just FYI, not all hospitals will allow public cord blood donation - the hospital I delivered at didn't, which really irritated me.

Another vote here for the public bank donation. The only slightly compelling argument I've heard for private banking is if you are essentially an ethnic or racial minority (or your child is) - then, it may be harder for them to find a match in public bank (although, if everyone was donating publicly, then this wouldn't be a problem). Interestingly, I work at a county hospital where the majority of obstetric patients are non-white, and the huge, local cancer center keeps a team of cord blood collection specialists there (the public hospital) 24/7 to solicit cord blood for public donation. They get a pretty high yield - probably about 80% of patients.

[edurnemk]

We did it before learning about delayed clamping. We went with CBR, although Viacord was our second option, after much research I think those are the 2 best private banks. (I even researched adverse reports in the FDA, etc.)

The reason we decided to do this (vs. donating to a public bank) is that because of our unique circumstances we don't know where we'll be living in the future, and if DS were to need it we might not have access to a public bank, or we might not find a a good match (due to our family origins -not very common in the US). Most doctors we spoke to in the US said they didn't think it was worth it or that it was better to donate, it, however the Dr. we spoke to in DH's home country said it was like an extra "insurance" and that if we could afford it it might be a good idea.

For our next baby, I'm a bit torn since I'd like to do delayed clamping, so I might not do it again only for that reason.

FWIW this year DH was diagnosed with a genetic condition that affects his blood coagulation, we yet have to test DS to see if he got it. I haven't looked yet into stem cell research in this area, but if there's certain genetic diseases in your family you might want to look into it.


Has anyone ever done this and how exactly does it work? How much notice do I need to give to do this and is it worth it?

To answer your questions, we ordered the kit about 3-4 weeks before DS was born (he was 2 weeks early), but IIRC they can send it "urgent" if you're very close to your due date. After the baby is born the OB will take the blood from the cord with the material included in the kit, but you have to ask him first to make sure he'll do it. Once collected you call the bank and they'll send a courier to pick it up. They won't charge you until the sample is collected and processed (meaning, you can order the kit and then not use it and it won't cost you, or if the sample is not viable, they also won't charge you).

I can't say if it's worth it or not, since we fortunately have not needed to use it, but it gives me peace of mind.

[Naranjadia]

We did it and regretted it. I ceased paying for storage after the 2nd year. I hope they donated it, but I doubt it. :p

We made the decision to do it after a close friend died of a rare type of acute myeloid leukemia. So we were sort of in a cover-your-bases mode. We knew it wouldn't be useful for some diseases. What we didn't know was that sometimes you can't use your own cord blood cells anyway and what we should have realized, after watching our friend strike out in finding familial matches, was that S & L wouldn't necessarily be a match for each other, should one have a disease and the other not.

Then, about 4 or 5 months after they were born, all these reports came out about the cord blood banks making excessive claims, and not really being clear on the limited use of banking your child's cord blood. There were also very persuasive arguments about the value of donating your child's cord blood to public banks. That is now what I wish we had done. I guess I'm $5000 wiser. :p

[WolfpackMom]

Ask your Dr if they will collect the cord blood. Then, I would strongly recommend that you consider donating the cord blood to a public blood bank. Private banks are VERY expensive and on the very off chance that your DC would need a transplant, the chances are good that a public bank would have a suitable match. When I asked about it I was told that there are some diseases where a child can't use their own blood, so in that case it wouldn't even help to have saved it for yourself.

http://www.marrow.org/HELP/Donate_Cord_Blood_Share_Life/index.html




I think there are such a tiny number of cases in which it might be lifesaving, and the risks associated with giving an unregulated profit-making company the job of looking after the cord blood, that in my opinion it's not worth the huge financial (and emotional) investment.

Just my 2c.

:yeahthat: (Bolding is mine). These companies are here to make money by preying on fear. I would strongly consider donating to a public bank.

[karstmama]

My medical insurance seems to regulate c-sections rather stiffly and I'm wondering what options are available so I can ask my OB at my next appointment what is available to *me*.

i don't know of any insurance that would pay for cord blood collection, so that's a non-issue. private cord blood collection is all out-of-pocket. the ob would most likely hand your placenta off to a nurse to do the actual collection because sewing you up is the more important task. :wink2:

the actual collection process isn't hard, but i agree that it's less than worth the cost. public, yes, but private - i just don't see the benefit being worth the cost.

though, obviously, if your baby was the one who defied the odds because you saved the blood, it would be worth it. i just don't think that the chances of that happening raise cord blood storage to the importance and risk reduction of, say, carseats - no matter what the companies want you to think.

[drwg21]

We did it for #2 and will do it again for #3. I have a family member who is paying for it since they are the ones who will likely use it (due to a degenerative disease). Had it not been for that specific reason, we would not have done it otherwise. I think it just depends on people's circumstances. We also paid for the full 18 years up front, which helps lower the costs.

[brittone2]

We never banked. If we had a family history of certain illnesses, I would have considered it, but we did not, so we did not bank.

We waited until the cord stopped pulsing...delayed clamping and cutting.

My first son was *almost* anemic when tested right around 12 months. He was just above the threshold. He was eating very little in terms of solids when testing. That little bit of extra iron reserves IMO may have kept him out of anemia territory. There is some data that it can be helpful in preventing anemia by providing extra iron stores.

The other option I would have considered was donating to a public bank, but it didn't fit our circumstances at the time.

eta: read up on the track record of how "usable" those cells really are for people at this point in time. IMO, not nearly as impressive as the private companies would like people to believe.

[carolinamama]

We donated to a public bank for the last 2 kids. I am fuzzy on the details right now, but the donation was affiliated with a research study and I was fine with that. DH would not have banked privately for the reasons already given by previous posts but collection for the public bank was offered at the hospital where I delivered so we went that route.

[eh613c]

I asked my OB about this when I was pregnant with DS, because I was being bombarded with marketing materials from cord blood banking companies. She recommended not to go ahead (or if we did want to collect it, to donate it to a public bank as PP said) because it's an entirely new and unregulated industry, so people are just making lots of money without any oversight. My OB suggested we ask ourselves whether we could be confident that he bank was looking after the blood in exactly the right way (at right temps, in a sterile environment, not getting it mixed up with someone else's cord blood etc etc) I couldn't square myself to getting involved in something like that. We don't know anyone else who has done it either.

I think there are such a tiny number of cases in which it might be lifesaving, and the risks associated with giving an unregulated profit-making company the job of looking after the cord blood, that in my opinion it's not worth the huge financial (and emotional) investment.

Just my 2c.

:yeahthat:

My OB said the same thing.

[MacMacMoo]

With HopMoo our hospital was part of a cord blood bank research program. We really wanted to donate, but when the time came to collect the cord blood they weren't able to get a big enough sample.

[edurnemk]

BTW there are now more sources for stem cells, such as teeth, this is an example http://us.bioeden.com/ I have not researched it, I just saw it at my dentist's office today. So cord blood banking may no tbe your last chance to bank stem cells.

[GonnaBJulymom]

I had a question about delaying cord clamping and donating to the public bank and this is what the nurse at the public bank cord program told me:

"There are no clear data on this question to my knowledge, but it is
reasonable to assume that it probably does affect the volume of blood
left in the placenta and cord. We don't know how much, however, and the
amount left varies considerably regardless. Our advice is to follow your
birth plan and still have whatever is left collected - we wouldn't want
to miss out on a potentially useful unit if it does meet the volume
criteria."

turned out DS had the cord wrapped around his neck 3 times so they had to pretty much cut it right away to release him and was able to collect enough to donate. Totally agree with all the ladies that the chance of using it again is pretty low. Good luck with your decision!