Cord Blood Banking = Good

So, it's not really a secret anymore, but Daniel and I will be trying for our first child starting in September. Being the planner/OCD person that I am, I have already started a binder with all of my plans and ideas for pregnancy, labor, raising children, etc. In addition to my binder, I have started recording a lot of shows on TLC an Discovery Health - like A Baby Story and Baby Diaries, etc. Well, that's how we got introduced to cord blood banking...ever heard of it? Neither had we - go to this website and it will tell you all you ever needed to know about cord blood banking, what it is, your options for family and public banks, prices, the process, the diseases/issues cord blood has successfully cured, etc. It's awesome!
Daniel and I have officially decided that we will be banking our first child's cord blood in a private, family bank. That means, if either of us or any of our kids ever get any of the 70+ diseases (including Anemias, Lymphomas and Leukemias) that cord blood has been proven to cure, there is a pretty solid chance that the banked cord blood of our child will save our life/lives.

In addition to the 70+ diseases/cancers that cord blood has already successfully cured, there are many, many others currently in clinical trials (including breast cancer and type 1 diabetes).

We figure it's going to cost about $3,000 to purchase the 'kit', pay for express shipment of the cord blood once it is extracted from the cord, and freeze it for 18 years. Oh and by the way, there are no health risks in collecting cord blood - no harm, discomfort, pain, etc. to the child or mother.

More and more people are starting to do this and it's becoming more and more international (there are private and public banks all over the world now). So, I encourage you to at least look into it. Afterall, if you don't bank the cord blood, it will just be disposed of. However, if you do bank the cord blood and don't ever need it then you can donate it to a family that is in need of cord blood (see here) or you can donate it to research so more and more diseases/cancers can be cured!

These days, placenta blood banking has started to happen concurrently with cord blood banking. I only know of one private, family bank who does placenta banking, too. However, it works almost the exact same way and basically provides you twice the amount of raw stem cells, which would ideally increase your odds for a successful transfusion if the blood were ever needed. The bad news is that it does cost about twice as much (which makes sense considering your going to get about twice as much usable blood.)

For now, we are sticking with just the cord blood banking on the first child for financial reasons; however, we may look into placenta banking as well. We consider this one of the best investments we will ever make. All that's left for us to do is sift through all of the private, family bank options and choose the one that's right for us!

I'm no expert, but I have read a lot on this issue, so please feel free to ask me any questions if you have them, and I'll do my best to answer them!
Please Note: Cord blood banking and research is very different from the ever-controversial stem cell research. Although cord blood is made up of valuable stem cells, cord blood banking and cord blood research do not have anything to do with the controversies that surround stem cell research. Stem cell research is primarily controversial (at least in my eyes) because it deals with fertilized embryos and the destruction of them for research purposes. Cord blood consists of stem cells, but they are in their raw form (as in, not an embryo...not fertilized...just blood) and is simply properly disposed of by the hospital if the parent does not choose to privately bank them or donate them to a public bank.