To Bank Or Not To Bank?

With our little one due in less than a month’s time the crunch is on to make a decision regarding cord blood banking. There is a ton of research or as my legal trained husband would call “due diligence” which needs to be done to make an informed decision. To me banking a specimen of blood immediately after your baby is born seems a no brainer if it could mean one day curing your child of a variety of serious diseases. I have spent a lot of time discussing cord blood banking with friends and family and to be honest there is no consensus and a pile of controversy. I want to share with you some of the discussions which have evolved over the past few weeks surrounding this topic.

Naturally one would think the best person to ask is your doctor…right? So I did just that and was shocked at how diplomatic and unbiased my doctor was about the topic. I learnt that Doctors sadly cannot give their personal opinion on this topic in Alberta/Canada as we have public health care and this falls under the private sector as there is a fee involved. So, after asking my questions I was given some things to think about defending each side of the argument…Here are the pros and cons that I was faced with.

-If you don’t bank privately there will still be options available if your child falls ill, such as donor banks

-Also, with the way technology is evolving we are finding cures every day for illnesses and diseases which we thought we would never be able to cure, so if your child does fall ill there will be more and more options for treatment over the years

-Both you and your husband are healthy adults and therefore the chances of your child falling ill is slim

Ok the Pros

-You likely have insurance for your house right? and therefore you can look at banking cord blood as an expensive insurance premium for your child and your family

-In the event of your child falling ill there are several diseases which cord blood can and will treat with a high rate of success

-If you are in a position where you require stem sells or cord blood to cure or treat your child, your specimen will be a 100% match and therefore the most effective form of treatment

-your baby’s cord blood could one day save your life as well or other children you may have

I was really happy my doctor took the time to point out my options and offer her professional opinion however it would have been so much easier for her to just say either Do it or Don’t bother…but I understood that she couldn’t and respected her opinions.

So the discussion continued

Many of my friends said if they were currently expecting they would definitely pursue cord blood but some said that they didn’t think it was necessary and just another scheme to make more money off innocent new parents. Some even made reference that in a way it was like playing “God” as if you might be interfering with a bigger plan that shouldn’t be in your control.

After several discussions on the way to sports events, movies and dinners with my husband we decided that for us we were going to take the plunge and bank our baby's cord blood. I suspect this came from the fact that my husband is incredibly risk adverse and I am bordering on being a hypochondriac. It also didn’t help that the same scenario kept playing over and over in my head, one that I couldn’t seem to get rid of- it went a little like this…

You give birth to what you think is a beautiful, healthy child but one day he falls sick and there you are in a Doctors office with your husband and your baby and they drop the bomb, telling you your child has…....the good news is says the Doctor we have found that this illness responds with high success to cord blood or stem cell treatment. Did you by chance bank your babies cord blood?

It was this scenario that I pondered with for several days and the one which finally led us to our decision. Before I continue any further I need to make it clear that I hold no judgement to parents who choose not to bank cord blood in fact in a way I admire their ability to not obsess over things like this. At the end of the day you hope that you and the people around you will never be in a situation like I described above. Anyway the decision was made and the next step was which provider…yes, who knew there were so many cord blood banks in our country and why couldn’t there be just one?

The three major cord blood providers that we researched were life bank which is based in Toronto, Cells for life which has a Calgary office (idyllic) and Canadian Cord Blood Registry which is based in Edmonton. Each organization essentially does the same thing; banks cord blood. Each costs about the same amount approximately $1000.00 plus the cost of an annual storage fee of about $100-$140. After perusing their websites and speaking to representatives I picked up the phone to talk to parents who also decided to bank cord blood to get their opinions on why they chose the company they did. Turns out we know people who have used each service and all have positive things to say about their experience. Again the decision was up to us so we went with our gut and chose cells for life for no other reason than it felt right when I spoke to a representative over the phone plus we attended an excellent information session that talks new parents through the entire process which was perfect! There you have it our process/dilemma of debating To Bank or Not to Bank…Now, we just pray and cross our fingers that this insurance policy never has to be put to use.