Would you save your baby's cord blood?

Originally Posted by pinkdaisy226

Okay I just realized (yes I'm a bit slow, I know) that what happens if you have more than one child? I mean, say you decide preserving the cord blood is a good idea. Great. Then you decide to have another child... would you do the same thing? I mean, if doing it for one child is expensive, imagine two! And there's the fact that the cord blood could be used for the sibling, could being the operative word as it wouldn't be a perfect match. Plus, can you imagine telling your 2nd child why you saved the cord blood from the first born and not the next one? Eek.

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LIke I mentioned earlier, we've banked both my kids' cord blood with gifts from my grandparents. They have 4 great-grandkids now and have done this for all of them! I think you would have to plan on banking all of your children's cord blood, so there would be no unfairness. The first baby always gets all the good stuff, but not banking second and subsequent children's blood is mean.

I would if it was affordable, also I would try to get some of it donated for research purposes.

Donating cord blood is becomming more common and I think it's a great idea. Stem cells from cord blood are actually effective when it comes to treatment for various diseases, including sickle cell. A lot of people focus on embryonic stem cells and how great they could supposedly be, without being aware that cord blood stem cells actually work effectively and are saving people now. I would donate my (baby's) cord blood. The Indiana Blood Bank takes cord blood, as well as bone marrow.

I don't really understand the point of banking it at all... Is it just for the stem cells? Because (super-gross warning!) menstrual blood contains alot of stem cells too. But we don't save that!

Originally Posted by Zissou'sMom

I don't really understand the point of banking it at all... Is it just for the stem cells? Because (super-gross warning!) menstrual blood contains alot of stem cells too. But we don't save that!

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Menstrual blood contains stem cells? Where did you hear that? Interesting information.

You can bank the cord blood not just for the stem cells. If your child ever goes missing the FBI would have the richest DNA information possible to help find the child. You could use it to identify whose organs you are compatible with. You could use it to match with a worldwide database to see if your child can donate blood marrow to save anybody else' life.

The possibilities are endless. Although I am a much bigger fan of governmental cord blood banks. It doesn't cost a lot of money to store blood in liquid nitrogen.

Originally Posted by Zissou'sMom

I don't really understand the point of banking it at all... Is it just for the stem cells? Because (super-gross warning!) menstrual blood contains alot of stem cells too. But we don't save that!

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I don't know about menstual blood, but cord blood stem cells are extremely impressive. They not only treat diseases like sickle cell, but also these:

"These disorders include more than 45 rare diseases, such as Krabbe Disease, Hurler Syndrome, Adrenoleukodystrophy, Metachromatic Leukodystrophy, Tay-Sachs disease, Sandhoff disease and a host of others."

"Cord blood appears to provide a better and faster correction of enzyme deficiencies than does adult bone marrow, she said. Stem cells from cord blood travel to the brain more rapidly than stem cells from adult bone marrow, and cord blood stem cells repair deficiencies in both the central and peripheral nervous systems, said Kurtzberg."

from this website: http://www.dukemednews.org/news/article.php?id=8747

Further reading on this website shows that cord blood cells can differentiate into heart muscle and brain cells, unlike embryonic cells.

Here is another interesting article:

http://www.nscc.edu.au/file_download...fact3_cord.pdf

From the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society:

"What diseases may be treated with cord blood stem cell transplantation?
The first successful cord blood stem cell transplant was performed in 1988 in Paris, France. The patient, a boy with Fanconi's syndrome (a rare, genetic and lethal type of anemia), is alive and healthy today. Cord blood stem cell transplants have now been successfully given to patients (mostly children) with some 80 disease diagnoses, including acute lymphocytic leukemia (also called acute lymphoblastic leukemia or ALL), acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), myelodysplasia, chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), juvenile chronic myelogenous leukemia (JCML), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, neuroblastoma, thalassemia, severe combined immune deficiency (SCID), Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, metabolic diseases such as adrenoleukodystrophy and Hurler syndrome and severe aplastic anemia. To date, more than 6,000 cord blood stem cell transplants from unrelated donors and several hundred from sibling donors have been performed worldwide."

Here's a ref. for the "other source" of stem cells...
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/527401 it's from Reuters and was re-reported on most major news companies.
It has 30X the amount in regular bone marrow. And it shows promise of being able to turn into heart cells... so what's the difference?

I definitely would never let the government have my child's stem cells and probably wouldn't trust anyone else to bank it either. Rare, severe genetic problems don't seem like a good reason to hand out a bunch of money to anyone. And it seems like a great way for someone to scam you, since the likelihood that anyone will need them isn't very great and companies could go for a long time just throwing the cord blood out instead of actually banking it.

I would definitely love to do it when i have children, but i'm sure cost will be a huge issue....so i probably won't be able to because of that factor. But i definitely think it's a good idea if a person doesn't have financial limitations.In my opinion it's a much better option than those who side with embryonic stem cell research - i'm completely against it ( i'm for adult stem cell research only.) But that's just my own opinion and morals.

Originally Posted by Zissou'sMom

Here's a ref. for the "other source" of stem cells...
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/527401 it's from Reuters and was re-reported on most major news companies.
It has 30X the amount in regular bone marrow. And it shows promise of being able to turn into heart cells... so what's the difference?

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I couldn't get the link to work. Could you find another link?

Fascinating story indeed.

ETA: Some stem cells are totipotent (meaning they can change into all kinds of different cells). Some stem cells are pluripotent (meaning they can change into several different cells depending on cell group, but the ability is extremely limited).

I donated my third child's cord blood. The company that did it told us that it would be uses on other people and that if anyone in my family needed stem cells they we could get it for free. I can not remember the name of the company but at the time we lived in Ohio. They told us that all we needed was our paper work and at anytime in my kids or our lives, they could get it. I make sure that I know where they paper work is at all times. I would have done it with my other children but they did not do it back then.

The lady who worked for the company was very nice and made sure that my husband was in the room while she explained everything. She gave us plenty of time to think it over before she asked for an answer. Also while I was in labor she came back several times to make sure we still wanted to do it and to see if I need anything. She also made sure that after I had my child she checked again before she did the procedure. Then after she did the procedure she came back in to make sure that I was ok and to let me know how much they received from the core and that everything looked good with the blood.

Originally Posted by Meldonn

I donated my third child's cord blood. The company that did it told us that it would be uses on other people and that if anyone in my family needed stem cells they we could get it for free.

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Awesome! Good for you! I'm glad this resource is being collected. After all, for now most of it goes into the trash. Much better to start saving it for those who need it. And if you have the funds, or caring grandparents to pay the cost for you to keep it for your own child, more power to you!

Thanks PinkDaisy, I voted YES!

Originally Posted by Meldonn

I donated my third child's cord blood. The company that did it told us that it would be uses on other people and that if anyone in my family needed stem cells they we could get it for free.

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You know, I stumbled across a website that does that and I was thinking that that's pretty neat - that it's kind of like banking it but you don't have to pay for it and if you need it, you get it back. My only problem with that is what if you DO need it, you know? I mean, it could very easily be spent...

I dunno, I still haven't made up my decision so I'm glad I voted maybe. I was talking to DH and he said that he thought it was a good idea and something to think about, but at the same time he didn't really give it more thought so who knows...

I think, knowing that members of my family have had cancer and that both my DH and I have one grandparent with mild Alzheimer's it might be a good idea... and on that note, if my family had been completely healthy I probably wouldn't be givin it much thought.

Any news outlet that carries Reuters' wire stories will have the story I linked to, but here's another just in case:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/h...sh_1590861.htm