Cord blood ?

Hi all,

It might be a little late now given that we're in week 35 but I think it's
still an option.

Are there any good resources online on Cord blood banks or any government
standards etc. in that area? I have looked at a couple of places - Viacord
and Cord Blood Registry but still am not sure if this is something that we
should be doing.

Our concerns are more along the lines of:

- Can we trust the company to keep the blood safe so it can be used should
the need arise?
- For some reason if we wanted to move to another bank, would we be able to
have the blood transferred over?
- There also seems to be a huge difference in cost, one company charges $700
and the other $1700. The sales rep says they charge more because they're
better (uh huh, sure)

If anyone has any resources, opinions etc. we could really do with the
information.

Thanks,

Kevin

"Kevin" wrote
Hi all,

It might be a little late now given that we're in week 35 but I think it's
still an option.

I called the Marrow place this morning and was told that I was too late, I'm
35 weeks they want you to have everything filled in and submitted by 35
weeks...I was a bit peed off at the woman on the phone. I want to donate the
cord blood not bank it.

She said if I got everything in by Friday they might be able to do it for
me, one question though if anyone here has done it - do they take the cord
blood before the cord has stopped pulsing? I want them to leave the cord
alone until it has stopped pulsing but does that mean they can't harvest the
cord blood anyway?

Bóliath wrote:

She said if I got everything in by Friday they might be able to do it for
me, one question though if anyone here has done it - do they take the cord
blood before the cord has stopped pulsing? I want them to leave the cord
alone until it has stopped pulsing but does that mean they can't harvest the
cord blood anyway?

It seems like you get different answers from different
people on this one, but most times I've heard that they can
wait and still get an adequate amount. I would definitely
insist on waiting. I'd rather my baby had the blood *now*.

Best wishes,
Ericka

"Ericka Kammerer" wrote in message
...
Bóliath wrote:

She said if I got everything in by Friday they might be able to do it for
me, one question though if anyone here has done it - do they take the
cord
blood before the cord has stopped pulsing? I want them to leave the cord
alone until it has stopped pulsing but does that mean they can't harvest
the
cord blood anyway?

It seems like you get different answers from different
people on this one, but most times I've heard that they can
wait and still get an adequate amount. I would definitely
insist on waiting. I'd rather my baby had the blood *now*.

My thoughts exactly, looks like I'll have to give the donation a miss this
time, I feel bad but I just didn't get it together in time

I am wondering if anyone here has banked cord blood?? I have gathered
a bunch of information about it because it seemed like such a
wonderful idea.

Then I talked to a couple of doctors about it (especially since it is
SO expensive) and was discouraged from doing it. One doctor said that
so much of it is still so experimental and a lot of it is based upon
what they are "hoping to be able to do in the future" but is not yet
something they can actually do.

I know from my reading that they claim that they can use the cord
blood to cure so many diseases, but from what I have been told, this
is not yet a truly proven fact... it takes years and years, and this
is all still a relatively new procedure...

It is all so confusing...

Desiree,

If it's not too late we're going to save our baby's cord blood. I'm going
to be calling the company today. The hospital gave us a brochure from one
of the companies and I thought she said it would cost about $800 for the
initial setup. All the companies I've written to say it will cost between
$1700 and $1900, plus the yearly $100 or so. Our concerns basically were -
Will the blood be good if needed and what kind of gaurantees do they offer,
Can we move the blood if we chose to switch companies and if there is a
government body that regulates these cord blood places. From what I have
read there are a few diseases that can be cured by cord blood right now, one
of them is Leukemia(sp?).

I think we're going to go for it because we've been thinking about it a fair
bit and we don't want to be kicking ourselves 15-20 yrs from now if
something happens to one of our kids and we "could have" done something had
we saved the cord blood. If the procedures change and it's useless in a
decade or so, oh well, atleast we tried.

Now, I just hope they will still do it, my wife's at 35.5 weeks.

Kevin


"Desiree O." wrote in message
om...
I am wondering if anyone here has banked cord blood?? I have gathered
a bunch of information about it because it seemed like such a
wonderful idea.

Then I talked to a couple of doctors about it (especially since it is
SO expensive) and was discouraged from doing it. One doctor said that
so much of it is still so experimental and a lot of it is based upon
what they are "hoping to be able to do in the future" but is not yet
something they can actually do.

I know from my reading that they claim that they can use the cord
blood to cure so many diseases, but from what I have been told, this
is not yet a truly proven fact... it takes years and years, and this
is all still a relatively new procedure...

It is all so confusing...