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Me and my husband are interested in preserving our newborn's cord blood stem cells. I have found several companies that do such a thing. Most are OUTAGEOUSLY EXPENSIVE. I have found an ad in my AMERICAN BABY magazine for CRYO-CELL. Has anyone had any experience with this company? Thanks a bunch,
~ECH
My DH is a Hodgkins Disease (lymphoma) survivor. His sister died from leukemia. Not surprisingly we were very interested in preserving our child's stem cells at birth. We consulted with my DH's oncologist at Memorial Slone Kettering Cancer Institute in New York City and she recommended we not bank the cord blood--especially not with a for-profit company.
The oncologist explained that unless you know for certain what you'll use the cord blood for, there's little use for it. Plus, the "shelf life" is unknown. She sees it as basically a money making venture that's preying on the public's anxiety.
Of course, it's a private, personal decision. I just wanted to share our experience because we thought we'd be good candidates to store cord blood and didn't do it.
HTH
We actually wanted to donate our baby's cord blood, rather than store it for ourselves. Unfortunately the hospital where we deliverd was not affiliated with any of the collection organizations, so we couldn't do it or couldn't find the right information if we could. But I believe the hospital did use his cord (not the blood) for some kind of purpose, research or otherwise--they really didn't say, but the doctor made some comment about it. Grafts or something? Forgive me, I wasn't very coherent after the labor and delivery.
--Sue B.
SAHM to Evan Jeffrey 03-11-01
The hospital where I delivered was actually participating in a research study that harvests and banks cord blood. By consenting to be part of the study, the cord blood was banked at no cost to us. The only downside is that if someone else is a match for our baby's cord blood and needs it, then the cord blood would no longer be available for us. Otherwise, if for some reason in the future we should need this cord blood, it is available to us for no charge. The study is run out of New York, but we delivered in Virignia. You may want to ask if there are any similar research projects going on in your facility. To do this, both I and the baby had to have a (additional) blood test in the hospital as well as answering a mildly lengthy and somewhat personal (sexual activity questions, etc.) survey.
HTH,