Thoughts on Blood Cord Banking

[castocreations]

Hi there. So I'm now 7 + months pregnant (YAY!) and we've been talking about doing the blood cord banking thing. But we're still sort of on the fence and not even sure what company to look at.

Our family has some history of certain diseases ... cancer / leukemia ... and they say that this is one of the main reasons people should do it (if they have family history). If we had no history I wouldn't really consider it.

Has anyone here done it? I know it's crazy expensive but I figure all my couponing helps pay for it right? LOL

I'd love to get more information and thoughts on the subject.

P.S. Apologies if this has already been talked about...I did a search but didn't find anything (not that I'm great at searches).

[Spanelli8706]

We banked with Cord Blood Registries (CBR) last year. They were the most widely known and recommended by both the hospital and my OB. My husband is a cancer survivor and we felt it was a good idea. It reassured us when a few months after we banked, my little cousin was diagnosed with leukemia. When we signed up, we got some discount of like $200 off ( I think I have a code for it, PM me). The total was close to $2000 (a little below) I believe. But they offer you options to pay it off. We did the no-interest payments broken up over a year and it was a little over $100 a month, and we could fit it in our budget. After that, it is only $125 a year fee. Hope it helps. I don't regret it. :)

[TheWoman]

I decided the money was better put into my child's education fund. However, if I had a family history of any of the diseases it is suposed to help with or if I had plenty of money I might have done it.

[chriscree]

When we did it we donated it. it was free. A couple summers ago I got a call from the the Cord Blood bank asking me if my DS now 13 was healthy or ever had any illnesses. He was a match for another child needing the blood. To this day he still tells everyone that he helped save a life. and he can't wait till he is old enough to donate himself. So if you can't afford the registry at least donate the cord blood so someone else can use it.

[castocreations]

Originally Posted by chriscree When we did it we donated it. it was free. A couple summers ago I got a call from the the Cord Blood bank asking me if my DS now 13 was healthy or ever had any illnesses. He was a match for another child needing the blood. To this day he still tells everyone that he helped save a life. and he can't wait till he is old enough to donate himself. So if you can't afford the registry at least donate the cord blood so someone else can use it.

That is so awesome and exciting. They talked about that at our birthing class, but they don't have that option set up yet...it's scheduled to go online next year.

On the other hand, I think that since we do have history of issues in our family we wouldn't donate it anyway. We totally would if we didn't have issues.

TheWoman...we're not planning to fund our kid(s)' education. We'll help a small amount but we both expect our kid (s) to fund their own education. We both did it and it can be done. It's more important to us to fund our retirement savings.

But an education won't matter much if he gets a fatal disease. :( My dad died when he was only 36.

Spanelli...thanks for saying who you went with. I will PM you. That's the other thing that is so overwhelming...just who to pick. The birthing coach did say to make sure their storage facilities were FDA approved but other than that I have no idea how to pick.

[bonniebabies]

We went with CBR too and were happy with the customer service. There is a family history that concerns us too and we decided that cord blood banking is worth every penny. There are many ways to skimp on other expenses (breast feeding, hand-me-downs, homemade baby food, cloth diapers...) and that helped balance out our budget. If I had been into couponing for food at the time that would have helped even more!

[ILv2Shop]

For those of you who don't know anything about this, (as I didn't) here is a link that explains it:
Blood Cord Banking Explained
Wishing you the best on making your decision, Castocreations.

[castocreations]

Originally Posted by bonniebabies We went with CBR too and were happy with the customer service. There is a family history that concerns us too and we decided that cord blood banking is worth every penny. There are many ways to skimp on other expenses (breast feeding, hand-me-downs, homemade baby food, cloth diapers...) and that helped balance out our budget. If I had been into couponing for food at the time that would have helped even more!

Good point...I have BAGS of clothing already...and have had almost everything except a crib, a basinet, and a rocker donated to me. I even have a nice clean used breast pump that a coworker gave me. So we've saved hundreds upon hundreds of dollars already.

And if I can keep up on the couponing after the little guy is born that'll help too. :)

Thanks ILv2Shop...that is a helpful link. =)

[mandybeyl]

We banked with CryoCell. It was the same price as CBR (around $2000) but there were two things I liked better: 1. The initial payment included 4 years of storage (and I pay $125/year after that) and the main reason was 2. They offer dual-location storage at no additional charge. So my doc collected two units of blood and they are stored at seperate facilities in different states so you've got a little extra reassurance in the unlikely event one place caught fire, etc. This was four years ago so CBR may offer something similar now but it's something to consider.

[castocreations]

Thanks, Mandy. That is great info to know. :)