PPMD Community

umbilical cord/stem cells

Just out of curiosity, does anybody have a particular opinion about collecting and storing sibling umbilical cords? Have any of you done this with a view to potential future stem cell therapy for your child?

I'm curious because I'm pregnant with my second child (no DMD - had PGD and also CVS to be sure) and I'm undecided whether to store the cord. It's expensive I think too.

Does anyone think it's worth it? I'd value any opinions.

Favorite

0 members favorited this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Veronica E. on July 13, 2010 at 9:18am

Since we found out when I was pregnant that I was a carrier of DMD, we went ahead and did the umbilical cord banking, just in case there is a future DMD treatment that involves a child's own cells. It is quite expensive, but we knew how sick we would be if a future treatment came along and we didn't have it.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Rosalie on July 13, 2010 at 11:59am

I recently delivered my second child and banked his cord blood it is expensive but Viacord allows you to do payment plan and has several options no interest or credit check it is just a courtesy they offer. It makes it alot easier financially. Good Luck

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Lisa Groeger on July 13, 2010 at 1:50pm

I had the same situation. I did save the umbilical cord blood stem cells through CBR. The initial collection is a bit expensive. I think it was $250..not sure. But then it is only $99 a year after that. At least thats what I am paying. When my son was born 8 years ago there was talk that bone marrow transplants might be something they were pursuing for DMD but found later that it wasn't going to work. I am glad I saved it for many reasons. My two older sons have DMD and my third boy does not. Maybe it could help with some sort of treatment for his brothers but a very slim chance and also for my healthy boy as god forbid he may need it later.. But, I look at it as you never know so might as well keep it. But truly, statistics say that its a very slim and rare chance it would be used for anything..I think only a handful of children have used the cord blood stem cells since collection started I think in the mid 90's..

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Michelle on July 13, 2010 at 2:56pm

We banked for our second son, who was born w/o DMD. Used CBR. It was $1800 for the "registration" and now it's $125/year for storage. I figure it could benefit either of them at some point, so we did it. Grandparents helped out with the reg fee.

http://www.cordblood.com/cord_blood_banking_with_cbr/pricing_domest...

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Amrit on July 13, 2010 at 5:04pm

I did that too from CBR.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jonathan on July 13, 2010 at 10:21pm

I dont there is anything to lose by storing it if you can afford it.
There was a lot of hype about the use of stem cells for a lot of things but I think there is a long way to go before they are able to make use of them in the ways they want to. Still as Veronica said, im agine how you would feel if you didnt bank them and something came out which could have made use of them.....

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Melanie on July 13, 2010 at 10:22pm

We found out Aaron's diagnosis at about the same time that I found myself unexpectedly pregnant. I felt like I *had* to bank our DD's blood JUST IN CASE because like others have said...I'd never forgive myself if I learned it could've helped Aaron in the future and we hadn't saved it. There's so much research going on with stem cells, to my untrained ears it sounds like they are getting good at "growing" stems cells and maybe the ones we've banked will be unnecessary even if a treatment is found. I'll never regret banking. It was a decent chunk of change, but I'd spend FAR more if I thought it'd help Aaron in any way. That money was SO worth my peace of mind...just in case.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by lisa burke on July 14, 2010 at 10:59am

Thanks to everyone who replied. I think I'm still in two minds as it's very expensive here in the UK (I was quoted £2k - £3k for collection and then approx £200 a year to store) and we just don't have that money. However, we would FIND that money if I thought it would help my son. It's a tough one.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ofir Arad on July 14, 2010 at 3:09pm

We had the same problem when my wife was pregnant. We asked experts in stem cells and they told us that its very unprobable that the unmbilical cord stem cells of a brother or sister could be used as a treatment for DMD in the next years. We thought to keep this umbilical blood just in case and we went to an hematologist that told us that he dont recommend us to use a private cord bank because in Spain there is a public ubilical cord bank that would keep for us this blood for free if we have a letter from a doctor that says that this blood could serve for a future treatment for our son, we couldnt get this letter. The hematologist told us that if we want we cant use a private cord bank but in Spain the private umbilical cord bank are not certified. He recommended us not to use a bank that cost less than 1800 euros because this is the cost of the public bank. Finally we decided to donate the umbilical blood of our daugther for research or for somebody that can really use it. In this cases the bank always keep a little bit of blood in case the person that donate it would need it in the future.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Wyatt's Mommy, Melissa on July 14, 2010 at 3:28pm

I'm also pregnant using PGD & IVF, and I 100% am going to bank the baby's cord blood and placenta. I agree with what others have said, why not bank it, just in case. Even if it never helps (which I beleive it will), cord blood is already proven to be useful with other things (ex. cancer). After going through and the expensive IVF/PGD treatments I'm willing to spend that extra money just in case. Congratulations on your pregnancy, best of luck.