Cord blood is blood left in the umbilical cord or placenta after childbirth that is said to be a non controversial source of stem cells. Cord blood banking seems like a promising way to ensure that stem cells will be available for future medical use, partly because the procedure is easy and non-invasive, and it does not interfere with the childbirth process in any way. Women who choose to preserve cord blood have the option of donating their cord blood to a public bank, or paying to store it in a private bank for later use exclusively within their own family.
In the case of private banks, when a donor or immediate family member has a disease that requires a stem cell transplant, cord blood from a newborn bay in the family may be the best treatment option, as it will be a perfect match for the donor and has a 1 in 4 chance of being a perfect match for a siblings.
Unlike bone marrow transplants, which require a perfect match, cord blood transplants only require 3/6 Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLAs) to match. Cord blood is unique in this respect because it is the “youngest” source of stem cells and, thus, readily accepted in to a recipient’s system.
Save the Cord Foundation (www.savethecordfoundation.org) is a non-profit organization that was started by co-founders Charis Ober and Anne Sarabia. Both women graduated from the University of Arizona, and worked in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries before starting the foundation. They were motivated to start the foundation after visiting a public cord blood bank in Tucson, AZ, and meeting children with leukemia and sickle cell anemia whose lives had been saved with cord blood donations. Save the cord aims to make the collection of cord blood the standard of care in hospitals across the nation, and to make public cord blood banks a national priority.
Cord blood seems like a promising solution for stem cells. Are there any mothers contributing to this blog who have donated or preserved their cord blood? If not, did you know about the option at the time of giving birth? Thanks for any input!
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If we couldn't have afforded private banking, we would have definitely seriously considered public donation.
We chose to bank privately and we don't regret it. It was expensive though we saved $250 with a coupon we found online
http://www.cord-blood-banking-coupon.com
and family contributed to a gift registry we set up with CBR.
Private banking is a form of health insurance so we're glad we were able to do it for our baby.
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