Saturday

Is It Necessary For You Squirrel Away Your Own Child's Cord Blood?

By Greg Chandler

Parents who are expecting a baby have a number of decisions before the birth of the baby. Parents have to choose on everything from the name of the baby to whether they're going to breast-feed or formula-feed to their pediatrician will be. There's a lot of things to decide as the birth date approaches. A medical service that a great deal of new parents don't know that it's out there, is the ability to bank baby cord blood. This may sound strange to you, but it does have its place medically.

Why is a baby's own cord storage critical? The thought is that there is only one possibility in someone's life to collect their own cord blood and and that is at the moment of birth. In most hospital birthing procedures, the umbilical cord is normally disposed of following delivery of the baby anyhow, but it is a good source of a person's blood stem cells.

Most of the time the criticism has not been the issue of storing the cord blood alone, but the difficulties crop up from the corporate organizations promoting this as a essential thing to have when at present time there are plenty of public cord blood banks accessible. Storing cord blood as a yearly fee from these moneymaking corporations and the bill can be very excessive and the upfront storage expenses costing around $600-$1800 and a recurring fee of usually somewhere around $100.

A lot of parents want to know that it is their child's own blood instead of someone else will be used in them in medical necessity. Cord blood is a viable medical option for some health problems that can arise in the course of the child's life. It is true that the stem cells in the cords are utilized to remedy a number of pediatric disorders like sickle cell anemia, leukemia (although in genetic cases an individual's own cord blood can't be utilized), along with other rare metabolic health problems. It is also used for bone marrow transplants. Currently if you did not pay to store the cord from your baby, one can be taken from a brother or sister or even an unrelated person that matches. You can even choose to offer your child's cord blood to a publicly owned blood bank.

Most parents think of it as like insurance in case something happens and will give a annual fee that the big money corporations charge to store their babies' umbilical cord blood. Don't fret if you can't pay store your child's cord blood, there are programs around the country that can help you. One such cord donor program is the Sibling Donor Cord Blood Program in Oakland, CA.

One of the major problems with profit generating entities pushing individual storage of this kind is the reality that there is no proven studies showing that it is beneficial for most kids. Just because your own blood was not stored, does not mean that your child will not have treatments available in the future using donate cord blood. Other baby's cord blood are banked all the time and are available.

It is important to consider a lot of factors before actually paying for cord blood storage. It's pretty high in costs and it may not even be necessary. The public blood bank is available to offer help, so make up your own mind. If you feel a sense of security in doing so for your baby, then by all means, choose the private cord blood banking storage option, but don't say we didn't warn that it might not be necessary. - 26706

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