i looked into it and got the information from viacord - but for me, it didnt make sense to spend the $$ when i would be having no full siblings and only half the genetic family to work with.  basically, for the $$, i was getting half the benefit.  financially, it didnt make sense.

if finances arent an issue, and if its something youre looking forward to doing - you can order an information kit from viacord (or any other agency that does it) - my friend did it for her newest baby born in 2008 - it was about $2,000 for the kit, processing and storage... but i dont know for how long.  the viacord site says its about $2,000 for all that and storage for 20 years if you pay all at once.

i know she had the collection kit sent to her when she was around 7 months pregnant and it was in her hospital bag.  when she checked into the hospital she told everyone that entered her room she was doing cord blood collection and when the time came - the doctor took over and did it   it looked pretty easy - just arranging it with the doctor and remembering the kit! 

Amy (34)
DS (2) - d#470

Boy, n.: a noise with dirt on it.  ~Not Your Average Dictionary

I did it for my last two kids through CBR years ago and just received my kit for my new little guy that I'm having on the ninth. I'm a Registered Nurse so I was able to get a nice discount. The up front is spendy but I am able to make payments of $240 per month for six months and then after that it will just be the yearly storage fee.

I am mainly doing it for this baby because he has no full siblings and we obviously don't know everything about his donor's medical history. Just extra reassurance for me and for him should anything come up for him where he could benefit from me saving his cord blood.

we did it with our first son and will do it again. we used CBR because my uncle who is a doc said that they were the #1 Bank. we called and set up price i think is was about $1500 BUT we had already spent that on sperm so that didn't bother us. we had is paid off before Connor arrived. Now we pay $95 a year. That's it!! until the age of 18 and then we can either continue or donate. we will just keep it. you can pay more years in advance and get a discount too.

here is how it works.
1. ask your doc if they have done it before and which bank they use
2. call bank and they will ship a kit which will arrive about a month before baby is due.
3. take it to the hospital and give the kit to the doc.
4. doc will give it to you (basically it was 2 or 4 large syringes filled with blood)
5. you call the courier on the kit package.
6. a taxi driver showed up to my room and took it to the airport.
7 about 48hrs later we got a call that said they had it and they the cord blood was viable and how vialbe.

i went into great detail because i think everyone should do it.

TTC #2      1st July bfp- 2nd try Aug bfp-3rd try 9/1 ???
Connor born april 2005

I considered donating it but it couldn't be picked up from the Birth Center was I was planning to give birth, then I heard about and researched the benefits of delaying the cord clamping and planned to do that but ended with an emergency c section so didn't get to do any of it!

Sassy is growing up way too fast for her Mama...

She still SEEMS innocent though...

But look how little she was...

Here's the thing...it's virtually useless for most things for YOUR child.

If your child develops leukemia, then most likely those stem cells are also tainted. Plus when looking into a transplant, often times your own stem cells don't work as well. I had a patient who needed a stem cell transplant and had an identical twin sister who was not used because her stem cells were too identical to hers, so another siblings were used.

It makes much more sense to donate it. Here, the bank who you donate it to, put you in their data bank. If you ever need cord blood for any reason, you are put at the top of the recipient list.

Jamie
Mommy to Twins plus One - donor 733
All three of my babies at 6 months.

wow, we donated Ray's cord blood and also did not run in to any issues because we used a sperm donor?  What the heck difference does it make?