Cord Blood Banking - Dallas, TX

We banked both children with via cord. It is my understanding and I may be wrong so ask ... That Via Cord is the only bank that does research as well. In addition they have new technology that allow each sample to be used more than one time. This could be important down the road. So ask each group... When you total up upir cost from now until 21 it really is not that bad. The child can pay after that.

Hi Jennifer. I looked into this before my dr. suggested it. I reasearched several and chose via cord. I liked that they had their own lab vs. having to use an outside source and felt they were a step ahead than other stem banking companies. let me know if you need any other info. I have a referral card I can mail you that gives you some type of discount. This is so worth it if it can be used to save your child's life or even yours!

I have 4 cases of leukemia in my family. Even with that knowledge my doctor said cord blood banking sounds like a dream, but most of the time, they don't even get enough blood to even use. So you are paying for storage, and then when you do need it, you can't. That is what he explained to me. By all means do it if you can afford it. I couldn't afford it at all! I was so upset by this and told my husband if we ever need those cells I would never forgive him (b/c he said no)... but I got over it. Hopefully, I'll be able to afford it on our next child though.

We did not bank our daughter's blood due mainly to cost. We thought about donating it and got the literature on it. We decided not to do it because the doctor and hospital charge to collect it even if it is for a donation and the company said not to do it if we would have to pay out of pocket for it. I sure wish that there was a way to donate without having to pay to do so. Then it would be able to be used for research and to save other lives.

Jennifer,
with all of the news breaking and cutting edge discoveries today I would certainly take advantage of this. 2 years ago it would have been a maybe. 5 years ago no way. The reason is that the technology is in a race because everyone wants to be the first to discover and profit from the ability to cure spinal cord issues, diabetes, parkinson's, alzheimers and more. 5 years from now, who knows what? This reminds me of the Space race 30-40 years ago. Get some good info from Cord Blood Registry and also look at some independant sites by googling cord blood. Make sure it isn't a sales person and the information isn't 2 or more years old. That really helps. Also talk to your OB-GYN. They may be helpful.
K. @ The Nesting Place

My Aunt is a Midwife and I spoke to her about banking the cord blood and her thoughts on the situation.

She is not a fan of banking the cord blood. The cost associated with it is very high, not to mention the scare tactics that the banks use to try and get couples to spend their hard earned money on it. My doctor provided information but is not a big advocate of it either.

My DH and I have decided to dontate our B.'s cord blood. Provided we can find a place that will take a donation. The only location I have found in the DFW area is Dallas Medical Center but you have to deliver there.

I am totally for it! We could not afford to do this for our first 2 sons, however I wanted it to be able to be of some good, so we had it donated. I knew that otherwise it would just be thrown away as waste! So why not let someone else have a chance as well it would help with the research to further the cause. BTW - Some states have a program to do the donation for you, not sure if Texas does, but its worth looking into, ask your Dr.

I plan on banking now with our 3rd just in case. If you do decide that you can afford it I would highly recommend it. I'm with the others in the Viacord choice. However if you find its not something you can afford, I would strongly suggest donation. Its fairly easy, you just fill out a health questionare and they send you a packet to give to the nurses when you deliver.

If your interested the only company I have found to accept the donations is Cryobanks International.
Good Luck!

I am ALL THE WAY for it! We stored our first's cordblood with Viacord. In my research I found them to be the best in terms of how they store it, the research they perform and the company's staying power. They store the blood in such a way that it can be used for multiple patients (family members) if needed.

If, however, I have a second child, I will probably use a different bank (CBR) because I don't like having all my eggs in one basket--or blood in one bank. :) It would just decrease the odds of something bad happening if they are in two separate banks.

Viacord has a referral program if you are interested, let me know, I will get you more details.

If you can afford it, I think you are doing the right thing by banking the blood. It is the ULTIMATE family insurance policy!

BTW, most docs I know do not take the time to learn much about it, so they really don't have an opinion. I think the banks are trying to start educating the OB's about it, so they can help patients make this decision.

I also feel like in the near future, a big bank will be formed for others to use, but that would not help my child as much as her own cells. So I will not have any regrets for storing.

Best wishes!!

I am all for it!!!

We did not do it with our first, but we did it with our 2nd 2 months ago. My OBGYN was very much so for doing. We used CBR based on all the researh that I did, I found that I personally liked them the best and one big reason was where the bank itself is located here in the USA rather than another country. It is loacated in Phoenix, AZ which in the last 100 years is the best place in the US free of natural disasters. I talked to several banks and I was just overally please with the personal representative at CBR that happened to answer the phone that day to help me. If you would like, you can email me at ____@____.com at I can send you all her contact info along with one of my a $250 off coupon.

One big reason we did this was family history of illnesses/diseases on both sides that could be possibly treated with stem cells. I researched generally who in the family would be a possible match if they needed stem cells and what we looked at was that there would be a possible match with my husband, myself, our first child. Then we found out that my parents, my husband's parents, and our siblings would also be matches. With this info I ask the rep at CBR how likely this was. She told me that there was a GREAT chance that all those people I listed would be a match if they ever needed a stem cell transplant. With the cost being so high, we presented the info to our parents and asked them to look over it and let us know if they would be interested in splitting the total 3 ways with us knowing that the stem cells were there down the road if they needed them as well. They both agreed. That helped tremendously. CBR has also been great with paying out the initial cost and draft it out of our account every month. We were able to set up a payment plan that they don't offer on paper and were very willing to work with us to meet our needs. They are very fast at giving you a stem cell count once it is received at their lab, the stem cells are tracked every step of the way once they are picked up at the hospital and we received phone calls letting us know where they were and when they reached the lab. Within 3 days, we got the count of cells, and within 1 week we got our package and certificates from CBR. It has been the best experience I have gone through in having a B. and dealing with bills, payments, etc. My OBGYN was AWESOME in making sure that he collected as many cells as he could and he looked for every pocket he could to get them. My rep told me that the "good" amount to collect is 100 million cells and that is what most have stored, my doc collected 249 million cells that we have stored. He new the importance it was to us way before delivery.

It you have any more questions, feel free to email. Sorry for the story book, but this is one topic I love to talk about and get into.

K.

We used Lifebank to store our daughter's cord blood. Our doctor didn't know much about it at the time, 2 years ago, but we felt it was definitely worth it. We pay a monthly fee until the amount is paid in full, then we just pay an annual storage fee. We may never need it but it is better to be safe then sorry...I figure if we can pay a cable bill every month then paying to store her cord blood for the future is important!!

We opted NOT to do this after doing some research. Our research had shown that there is not one case of parents using the banked cord blood. The companies use scare tactics to lure parents into using their services and make you feel ike a bad mommy if you don't. What we found is that if your child does have a life threatening illness, the Drs will not use the cord blood since chances are the cord also has the same defect or disease cells. Drs will use publicly banked cord blood instead. Also, there is some controversy as to whether or not the private cord banks store the cord blood adequately so it can even be used in the event of an emergency. One director of a cord bank actually stepped down after this was pointed out.

We thought a better option would be to donate our B.'s cord. This means it will be stored properly and if needed, will be used.

Jennifer:
In 1994 my daughter's donated umbilical stem cells were used to CURE another child of cancer as part of the initial stem cell trials. As a result, we banked our next 3 children's cord blood with Cord Blood Registry. It is now believed that within less than a decade the technology will exist to CURE my husband's Type 1 Diabetes using my sons' stem cells. (Has been done already in mice.) (My husband developed Diabetes last year, out-of-the blue, with NO family history of the disease on either side of his family.) My understanding is that if one of our sons needed the stem cells they might use that child's sibling's stem cells as opposed to their own. The stem cells are 70% likely to be useable by anyone on either side of the family and we increased those odds by having three different boys stem cells stored.
I'll just leave it at that.
M.

Three years ago, my OB/GYN had no opinion one way or another. At that time, I was unable to find a place in DFW that would accept donated cord blood (my first choice), so I went ahead and paid to store my son's cord blood. To my surprise, it turns out that my son has an extremely rare blood type. The funny thing is that no one else in the family would be able to use this cord blood because of his blood type; however, his pediatrician has said that having the cord blood banked was a smart thing to do for him. I just pray he won't ever need to use it.

If you choose not to bank, please at least consider donating--hopefully someplace local will accept it now. Good luck on whichever choice you make!

Jennifer,

We decided to store our son's cord blood with Cord Blood Registry (CBR) six months ago. We didn't store my daughter's 3 years ago though. We talked to my OB about it when I was pregnant with my daughter and she wasn't for or against it. When we asked her again last year when I was pregnant with my son, she said that if she were pregnant now, she'd probably store it.
Right now there aren't as many uses for cord blood but it is expected that in the future there will be many.
I figured that for the investment (initial investment of about $1850 and then $125/year after that - about $4000 but the time he is 18) it would be worth it if it turns out to be as useful as they think it will.
We decided to use CBR for two reasons. First, I liked their location in AZ (least likely place for natural disaster), their collection method, their literature, and the person that I worked with was very helpful. Second, a woman at my church works in stem cell research and she chose that company after doing more research on it than I did. (She actually told me the reasons she chose CBR when I was pregnant - but now that I've got a 6 month old along with my 3 year old - my mind is completely gone and I can't remember her final decision reasoning :) ).
They have a referral program so please email me if you have any questions.
Hope that helps in your decision!
D.

Unless you have a history of illness in your family that warrants it (genetic diseases) or you are in a high risk situation (your ethnicity), the two doctors we discussed it with said it was a waste of time and money. But of course, they said the final decision was ours because there could always be that situation where you needed it and they did not want to be liable.

Jennifer,
I am a labor and delivery nurse and I am very much of an advocate for it. I have read many cases where cord blood has saved lives. We did it with our second child and don't regret the decision of doing it one bit. Hopefully we will never need it, but if we did then we have it. Most doctors I have worked for in the past are NOT big advocates for it and to be honest I will tell you why. To collect it at time of delivery is not always an easy process and each company has a different procedure for doing so. I really believe that doctors don't want to be responsible for messing it up and then the blood not being usable. Best of luck, Pam

My ob and all the other staff in her office are big advocates of banking cord blood. Their recommendation was to go with CBR and based on the research we did that was who we would also choose. With our first child we didn't bank the cord blood but we have already made the decision to bank the blood of any other children we may have.

I have only heard one thing against banking and I'm not sure how reliable of an argument it is but it is something worth researching. If you bank your child's blood and then that child gets sick and needs the use of that blood - you would think that the blood would also have the same cells that caused the sickness in the first place. Hopefully that's clear but I'm not a scientist so I don't if that's a possibility or not. Good luck with your decision.

We have done this for two kids now. My doctor was neutral on the subject two years ago but advocates for it now if you can afford it. There are so many prospects for it, and we feel it is an insurance policy for our kids should anything happen to them. We used Cryo-cell both times which is the cheapest of the major three services. We have researched them quite a bit and feel they have equivalent services for a cheaper cost. I can give you referral information if you are interested to save you a little more.

When I asked my doctor, she told me that she'd recommend it to everyone if it wasn't so expensive. But, because of the expense, she opted not to do it for her kids. Since we don't have family history of any kind of genetic or childhood diseases, we opted out as well. Congratulations on your pending arrival!

I used Cord Blood registry to bank my daughters cord blood. The initial storage and procurement is expensive, but you can make payments and then from that time on its about $100 a year for storage and that can't even compare to all the benefits. It can be used for a wide variety of ailments on pretty much any immediate family member from grandparents to siblings. My doctor provided information on the subject but didn't really push either way on the subject. You can request free information on the process which I would suggest so you can make an informed decision. I saw on one of the other responses that their doctor told them they usually can't get enough stem cells to use them anyway, but with my daughter i was told by the bank that they obtained a very high number with my daughters. I think if they are not able to obtain a certain number the don't even store it, but ours was a very good experience.