we banked our baby's cord blood through a private organization.
me and my Dh decided to do it. We think that the number of diseases it will be able to cure will increase in the future. Hopefully, our bean will not need it. But just in case, we want to have it. We chose Familycord and used a $500 coupon. If money is an issue, I have heard of publicly donating the cord blood. I am not sure if all companies do this. My OB mentioned that you can publicly donate the cord blood at no or minimum cost. The risk is that the cord blood may not be there if your child needs it. But our OB thought that if someone needed the cord blood that you would be notified and given the chance to "hold" it.
I was completely blown away when they told me that. I mean come on, cloning?? Stem cell research is so incredibly important. Even in it's early stages (now) it can cure at least 75 diseases, and who knows in the future. The bank we are using also offers financing, so we too thought it was going to be outragously expensive. The financing options though turned out to be breaking down the initial cost of $1000. You could do 3 payements of $350 along with a few other options. You could also save money by paying 18 years up front of the $125 fee. That was a bit out of the question for us right now. We chose to pay the $1000 in one lump sum and then pay the $125 annually. My only fear now is that they go out of business or something. We are now looking into splitting it...donating part of it to the public gov't run blood bank and storing part of it in the private one. Not sure if we can or not, but at least going to find out.
oh and p.s., the cloning thing is just hilarious! i'm surprised that that concern is winning out in Canada over all the potential benefit. i always think of Canucks as more progressive and common-sense. the U.S. is just coming out of the dark ages regarding stem cell research, but we've got a lot of catching up to do! (ok, enough political commentary from moi, i just couldn't resist. ;))
Thanks for your post, now I know what it costs! :) I was all for it, and then I got concerned because I saw that the cord blood banks offer "financing plans". So that freaked me out. We couldn't take on a major expense (many thousands) right now on top of everything else. But $1000 + $125 should be doable for us. I am going to talk to DH about it! I really want to do this if at all possible.
Thanks for this post! We've been in & out of the hospital & now I'm on strict bedrest til the babies are born. I'm 27 weeks, but each week we get to is a celebration :) I totally put cord blood banking out of my mind, but because we don't know when the babies will be born, we're now looking into it thanks to your reminder! Just wanted to thank you. I wouldn't have been prepared ;)
We did it for Chloe and its worth every dime!
We are also doing it the fhe company we used cost about $1450 the first year but it is broken down and $125 per year from then on. The enrollment was 250 to get the kit then once the baby is born and everything is collected it is $100 a month for the rest of the year. This makes it a lot easier because it is not a huge lump sum.
I think this is such an important decision you don't know what life will throw at you and all i could think of was what if something happens to my child that the stem cells could have helped and I didn't collect it? The fact that it was collected in installments helps a lot. It will be easy to cut back on expenses for 100 a month. no eating out, cancelling cable being careful at the grocery store, BFing instead of formula hopefully.
Well, we don't even have $1000 to put down on anything. I agree that they should do it just in case, and I also understand about the cloning issue. Darn activists! I don't know what the answer is. I really wish it was something I could afford, but it's just not and w/ baby coming next week I have no time to even save up for it. So, because of money I will not have it if we end up needing it. What a shame, I know I sound bitter, but it was money that kept holding me back on IVF, and money that is now keeping me from taking a very important precaution. I just hope we don't have a situation come up where we regret now being abled to do it. I worry about it alot....
LOL....OK, so can you tell I'm hormonal today??? LOL
I had exactly the same thought and asked about why they didn't do that. You will not believe what the response was.....it's because of all the controversy around stem cell research. Even though this method is completely safe for baby and mom, and is simply from the cord, it is controversial because some are worried about...(are you sitting down? lol) CLONING!! Seriously, that was the answer I was given....good grief.
I am suprised they dont collect cord blood from every baby just to have a supply of it to access later for any baby.. if they would have asked me I would have said sure no problem... it is a shame as it can cure so many things... oh well maybe one day health will win out over greed
I would love to explore this option. But not sure what the procedure for this in Canada.
We will ask the doctor around next month about that.
I have thought about it but I have not yet studied if that would be really useful and I also want to research companies and compare prices.
The company we went with has a payment plan you can choose. It breaks it up into 3 or 4 payments spread out, and the initial cost of just over $1000.00 also covers the first year storage fee. They really made it easy and that helped us tremendously. It is a Canadian Company, so it wouldn't work for those of you in the US, but if any other Canucks want the info just pm me and I will send you the info.
It is a shame that cost gets in the way. There is a public option here that we also looked into. It was free, but available to anyone. We seriously considered that route as well as of course the more that feed into the stored bank the better chances we all have of having something like this accessible if necessary. Amazing what today's technology can do. It sure makes we wonder what will be available by the time our babies are adults.
Hi there- I agree with you one hundred percent. i am an organ donation coordinator, so as you can image I see terrible things-children who die from traumas. I know we cannot control this. However, we CAN control some cancers that may affect our children and for that reason this is a MUST. Did you talk to the hospital aobut it where you will be giving birth? I am not yet too edcuated (we are not due until May) but I think there may be some discounts the hospital can offer. Cant hurt to try!
We can't do it either, because of money. I think it's such a shame that money plays such a huge roll in it.
we are doing it...received our kit last week. just curious what company you went with? we used CBR...but it cost os 1800.00 up front (and thats the discounted price cause we had a coupn) and 125 anually for storage. i am glad we did it and think its a great investment. glad you did it too.....
trish
DH and I want to do it (his brother and SIL just had their second daughter in Nov. and they did it...), but we just can't afford it. I know that if, God forbid, anything happens, we are going to have a hard time justifying our decision, but there just isn't the money right now.
Good for you guys! I think it's a great 'insurance' to have for our little ones!!
I didn't because of money, would have liked to and it will bring you great peace of mind.. good choice mommy!
I'm in Ontario and I was going to ask about it at my next appt. I'm just over 3 months, so it gives us plenty of time to get things straightened out. It's something that is really important to us. Thanks for posting this because I always wondered what the cost was! It is expensive, but worth it in the long run!
Take care,
Penny
I would like to but I just haven't been real sure because of the cost. Even if I don't though I'm gonna donate it so that maybe it will be of some use to someone. Then if we ever do need it, maybe some kind soul will have donated some that match someone we love. That is, if we ever get the chance! Hopefully this month.