On the other hand, that doesn't really seem likely, considering the number of parents that I personally or professionally know that have actually banked their baby's umbilical cord blood.
Since most parents think it is a good idea and would likely jump at the chance of doing something to keep their baby healthy and possibly save their life, why the disconnect?
The high cost of umbilical cord blood banking is the likely reason. Even those parents who can afford it often find something else to do with that money, like start a college fund, when they consider how unlikely it is that they would ever need to use that banked cord blood.
Even the American Academy of Pediatrics has concluded that 'private storage of cord blood as "biological insurance" is unwise.'1
That doesn't mean that the AAP is against umbilical cord blood banking though. Instead, they actually 'encourage' parents to donate their baby's cord blood to public cord blood banks. This can provide 'another source of hope for patients who have no matching donor in their own family, no unrelated donor in bone marrow donor registries that is a suitable match or no time to find a donor.'2
Public cord blood banks also provide another source of cord blood for parents who actually stored their baby's cord blood in a private bank, but find that they are not able to use it. That this could happen was recently highlighted in the case of Anothny Dones, a 4 month old with osteopetrosis who needed a cord blood transplant, but couldn't use his own cord blood that his parents had paid to store because it was also affected by this genetic disease.3 They instead got a transplant using cord blood that had been donated to a public bank.
If you are interested in donating your baby's cord blood to a public cord blood bank, talk to your doctor to see if there is one available in your area. Unfortunately, cord blood banks that allow you to donate cord blood aren't yet widely available. Hopefully, a new version of The Cord Blood Stem Cell Act of 2005 will be quickly finished and signed into law to help expand the public cord blood bank system.
There are cord blood banks and hospitals that allow public donation in certain regions of Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, and Washington. To see if you live near one, review this list from the National Marrow Donor Program.
Cord Blood References:
1Cord Blood Banking for Potential Future Transplantation: Subject Review. PEDIATRICS Vol. 104 No. 1 July 1999, pp. 116-118.2New York Blood Center National Cord Blood Program cord blood Q&A
3New York Blood Center National Cord Blood Program patients & outcomes
