Cord Blood

[erimela]

Just wondering if anyone has looked into storing their baby s core blood cells?

Interested in hearing options. My husband I are investing a possible £1700 to try and store our baby s core blood. We haven't decided yet we are a little confused.....

 

[pinkymum]

Just wondering if anyone has looked into storing their baby s core blood cells?

Interested in hearing options. My husband I are investing a possible £1700 to try and store our baby s core blood. We haven't decided yet we are a little confused.....

Can you explain it to me hun as I didn't know it could be stored. Why fo they store it? Sorry I've never heard of it before. I know I was asked about donating it.

X x x x

 

[Alexandra84]

I think the idea is that you keep the cord blood and if your child gets leukemia or something of that nature then they can in theory use it to restore the bone marrow after treatment (at least that's what I read).

However, I then also read a response by one of those doctors that treat leukemia and he wrote that he has never and would never use cord blood stored from the patient to treat the patient as the cells are likely have an underlying abnormality that caused the disease in the first place so using it does not actually solve the problem (which kind of makes sense to me). It is also usually not enough to use just cord blood (they would need marrow too) so he didn't really see the point of storing cord blood for your own child. He did recommend donating to a public cord blood (?) bank though because then it could help someone else and also if you ever did need it there's a big chance that it would still be available (having been stored for free...).

That's just what I read though, I'm sure there are other opinions out there .

We wouldn't do it as I haven't yet heard of any cases stored cord blood was particularly useful later on (i.e. to the child that donated it), there is already a bone marrow register in the UK, and we're planning to have more than one child (which increases the chances of a compatible match should one of our children ever need a bone marrow transplant, heavens forbid!). Would donate it though if someone asked.

 

[pinkymum]

I think the idea is that you keep the cord blood and if your child gets leukemia or something of that nature then they can in theory use it to restore the bonemarrow after treatment (at least that's what I read).

However, I then also read a response by one of those doctors that treat leukemia and he wrote that he has never and would never use cord blood stored from the patient to treat the patient as the cells are likely have an underlying abnormality that caused the disease in the first place so using it does not actually solve the problem (which kind of makes sense to me). It is also usually not enough to use just cord blood (they would need marrow too) so he didn't really see the point of storing cord blood for your own child. He did recommend donating to a public cord blood (?) bank though so that it could help someone else.

Ah ok, thanks thats interesting, I've never heard of it being stored just that it can be donated. My midwife mentioned something about it being tested on to find out why I had a dysfunctional uterine bleed 2 years ago and need 4 units of blood. I was confused and I have no idea what she meant

x x x x

 

[mablestarr]

I looked into it at the start of my pregnancy and did consider it, but really didn't think that there was enough evidence for its benefits. I then ended up having lots of problems during my pregnancy so never got round to looking at it in detail.
I looked at it a bit like an insurance premium - pay upfront for something you may never need to use. My advice would be to look at the companies that offer this service and possibly speak to your midwife/GP about it as £1700 is a lot of money and you need to be clear exactly what you would get for your money. xx

 

[clairebear22]

I'd like to donate my little man's cord blood if possible. Me & my OH are both on the doner register so why not get him to help out too if he can! After all he has no need for his cord once he's here! x