What You Must Know About Cord Blood Banks
Cord blood banks are mainly of two types, i.e. public cord blood banks and Private Banks. Normally, public cord blood banks are set up to facilitate umbilical stem cell research for disease treatment and for utilization in transplants of non-relatives. If you decide to save your baby’s cord blood at a public cord blood bank, they won?t provide you the link between your baby and her cord blood unit. Therefore, in time of need, there is no guarantee that you will be able to access your baby?s cord blood unit. On the contrary, if you donate your baby’s cord blood to a private bank, no one else is authorized to access and use that particular cord blood unit without your permission.
Your baby’s cord blood can be preserved in either a private cord blood bank or a public bank. The main purpose of these banks is the processing and cord blood storage. If the storage center is public, then the blood cells cannot be permanently entitled to the donor. Here the donors can be ensured units of cord blood, but not necessarily that his own. The donor is mostly likely to be a stranger. The cost of preservation in such banks is comparatively lower than the private banks offering cord blood banking facility.
Nevertheless, private blood banks do have their own share of obstacles. The cost of cord blood storage in private banks is quite high and is likely to discourage many. The biggest attraction towards private cord blood banks is the guarantee that the cord blood a patient preserves, will not be used by anyone else, unless the donor himself permits. Compared to the lower chances of cord blood cells transplants in a child, storage prices charged by these banks are relatively quite high.
Gather facts that ensure that the cord blood bank you have chosen to preserve your child’s cord blood, boasts of a well-organized procedure for cord blood collection, processing and preservation.
There are both non-profit and for-profit private banks operating in the industry for cord blood preservation. Cord blood storage for about 15 years may require you to pay around $3,000 in total. However, the donors can curtail price or can receive discounts by paying certain amount of upfront payments. Some banks enable donors to save around $500 for receiving a stipulated upfront payment.
If you and your partner are expecting a child soon, consider cord blood registry now as it can contribute in treating over 75 severe diseases. Not only will your child have a secure future, his siblings will benefit too. Diseases that can only be treated by drugs, rays such as chemotherapy or risk prone bone marrow transplants, are being treated with cord blood, with little or no side effects.