Cord Blood?

I was thinking of saving the cord blood. Has anyone done this? What are your thoughts?

 

I wanted to donate the twins cord blood, but my hospital doesn't participate.

 

it is pretty expensive and with the twins I just could not afford it ( I had just decided not to go back to work and we were newly living on just one income with 5 kids) but when I asked about it my dr said no because they did not do that with twin pregnancies. With this baby, I would like to but the money is still an issue I would love to donate it if the hospital will accept it. It seems silly for it to go to waste knowing someone somewhere could benefit from it. I also feel bad that money is the reason I can't do it in case my own family were to need it but it costs thousands a year and we just cannot do it.

 

I'm planning on doing delayed cord clamping with this LO so it's unlikely there'd be anything left to bank. I'm not sure how it works in the States, but in Canada there are pretty weird rules about when you can donate or collect for storage (for example, you can only collect it if you give birth between 9:00am - 5:00pm on Mondays - Thursdays). I think that's because someone needs to be at their office to take the sample & get it into storage. :unknw:

 

My hospital did do donation, but we didn't qualify b/c they were twins, either.

 

We did it. I had a emergency csection. But we took te kit to the hospital with us. It was expensive (3000),but we paid in 12 months no interest). After the first yr, we pay only 250/yr for both. We use Viacord. They guarantee annual fee won't change in 10 or 18 yrs something if I remember correctly.

It was expensive and we had to cut here and there to have the service. But if there is 0.0001% to save my kids lives in the future when they might need it. It's worth it. But I hope we never have to use it

You also can store 1 for the twins. If they are id, you should only need to store 1. If you decide to do it, don't forget to ask for your ob discount, twins discount if you decide to do both. Good luck!

 

Thanks. I agree if there is a slight chance to save there lives. I will look into Viacord and see what the cost is.

 

We did it for DD1, and the twins. We're in Canada.... and if you give birth on the weekend, you can deliver it on a Saturday or you have 48 hrs to get it there after time of birth.
We did Cells for Life. Totally worth it IF you can afford it, IMO!!!! Total peace of mind!

But note: with the twins, their placentas were starting to deteriorate a bit, so we only got 1/2 the cord blood that we had for DD1....but you get it at a discount price if that happens. so the cord blood will only last/work for a child up to 22lbs for our amount we stored. still was worth it for us!