Cord Blood Stem Cells Information

Cord Blood Bank?

Is anyone cosidering banking their cord blood? If you are, have you decided on a company? Heard anything about different companies or banking in general? I've seen banks with payment plans, and most cost between $1,200 and $2,100 to start, plus the $125 a year or so. But my biggest concern was what if they went out of business or something happened? That money could be put to other use. On the other hand, some things run on my maternal side (cancers and such), and I have NO idea who my father is, so who knows what history there is there? Some companies say that other close relatives (not just the baby) may be able to use the cells to treat some medical issues they have. All the annual storage fees I've seen are $100-$150, so I'm not sure where you're getting $1,000 a year for storage?

Public Comments

This is so very expensive to do if you havent already checked into it... Collection alone can run you 2000.00 and another 125.00-150.00 a year for storage. Then theres the risk that the company could go out of business, and you lose your cord blood. Not to mention with todays technology unless theres some genetic history in your family such as lukemia, the likelyhood of ever using it is very slim.
I've looked into it, and decided that it is way, way too expensive for our family. Unfortunately. I would absolutely love to know that I have a *safe guard* in the bank, if God forbid, our child ever became sick~~ But at 2,500 for the bank itself (when you deposit the cord blood) and $150.00 per month for the first year after-- No way we can afford that! I think they should make this a reasonable option for everyone. Why should some privileged families be able to safe guard their children because they have money- while the rest of us will have to worry, and feel like failures because we can't afford it.
vitacord is the major cord banking company. i considered donating my children's cord blood, but, at the time, it was costly to even DONATE it. if i were to have any more children, it would definately be something i would look into more.
The benefits are wonderful but the cost is astronomical for the middle and upper middle classes. It's generally a couple thousand dollars just to harvest it and then an annual storage fee that works out to about $1000 a year for every year you store it. It would be just easier to make a new baby when another child got sick and harvest the cord blood when you really need it than to store it.