blood is always in need. i write stories throughout the year on the need for blood donations, especially in the summer when schools are out and supplies are low because people have elective surgeries done. joe donates whenever he can, but i’m not allowed to now because of the arthritis medicines i’m on. so, i know the importance of blood donation. what i wasn’t aware of, though, was the fact that imbilical cord blood is just as important. the blood built up in the umbilical cord and placenta is thrown away after birth, but according to cryo cell international, umbilical cord blood is full of stem cells that can be used as a substitute for bone marrow during transplants.
i had no idea about the value of cord blood, partly because i haven’t had a child yet and party because i don’t know how many people think about umbilical cord blood when they think of the blood supply for hospitals and how cord blood can be used for treating diseases with stem cells. it makes me wonder if hospitals keep this in mind when babies are born of if they really just throw the umbilical cords and placentas with all that blood in them away. i know that if that blood can be used to help someone else, i would want them to save my baby’s cord blood. have any of you heard about this before?
Cord blood is not stored the same way regular donated blood is stored. It has to be stored in special cord blood banks. The reason many, many hospitals don’t donate the cord blood is simply because most areas in the country don’t have cord blood banks yet, so the resources aren’t there.
I considered doing paid family cord blood banking when Lila was born, but the cost was just so great. It stinks to look at it that way, but money is always going to be an issue. I checked on it again, and it’d cost just short of 2 grand to store the cord blood for just one baby…that’s four thousand dollars between the two. I don’t have an extra four grand lying around, so we probably won’t do it this time either.
I wanted to do this, but I was like Chas, it’s always about the darn money, I think if you can afford it, it’s a great thing. I’m not sure this was available at my hospital, it was never brought to my attention, I just read up on the subject myself.
hmm…i didn’t realize the cost associated with it. i guess i should do more research, but if that’s the case, i don’t think we’ll be able to do it either. it’s too bad it costs so much.
I have heard about it before, but I know very little about it. I will definitely look into it when I get pregnant.
I’ve seen advertisements in my Parents magazine that I subscribe to & then researched it online & saw how much $$ it is & even though I didn’t know about it when Justin was born in ’95, we couldn’t have afforded it & we couldn’t afford it w/our other pregnancies. It is definitely sad that something so beneficial to saving lives has to be so costly.
I’ve been meaning to research it, but as the others mentioned, cost unfortunately plays a large part in the decision.