Cord Blood

 It is amazing to me the number of things that you have never heard about that become major issues once you’re expecting a child. There are so many choices to be made. Everything from which doctor to use, where to have your baby, to find out the gender or not, what color to paint the nursery, oh and what label your new little person will be referred to for the rest of it’s life. Well, those were all things that I was expecting and had probably thought about at one time or another, but one of the things I had not given any thought to was weather or not to store our daughter’s cord blood.

I read a lot about the procedure. I wanted to know how it was done and if there would be any harm done to my daughter or myself in order to save her cord blood. I didn’t think that there would be, but I wanted to be sure. The more I learned about the procedure the more interested I became. It sounded like something that I was very interested in and as my husband and I talked about it he expressed that he was interested in it to.

There are numerous diseases that are now being treated and cured with the use of cord blood. Diseases such as sickle cell anemia and multiple types of cancers just to name a few. The cord blood provides a blank slate to become any type of body tissue.

The only negative aspect that I could come up with was the cost. It was well over $1000 to have our daughters cord blood collected, picked-up, and stored for one year. We chose a company to trust to transport and store our daughter’s cord blood. We had to call that company on our way to the hospital and within one hour of having her and be sure to give the collection kit to the labor and delivery nurse. Within one hour of having our baby we had to call the storage company and notify them of her birth. Within a short time there was a lady at our hospital room to pick up her cord blood to put it on a plane and fly it to the facility for storage. I was surprised at how smooth all of it went.

This whole process was one more thing to worry about when it came time for us to have our baby, but in hind site I’m so glad we did it. Every time I hear or read about something great that is being done with cord blood I get excited about our decision all over again.

There are many cord blood storage companies to choose from, and it might not be for everyone, but I think it was the right decision for us.