Cord blood: Know the facts when it comes to your child
Shai was diagnosed with leukemia as a child. After much searching, her family found her a stem cell donor, despite her rare tissue type, and she had a transplant. Unfortunately, her cancer relapsed, and Shai died. When her mother, Frances Verter, had another child, she was determined to save the baby’s cord blood, which contains valuable stem cells. She knew all too well the difficulties of finding donor tissue.
Verter began to research her options for banking her child's cord blood. After amassing a wealth of knowledge about the procedure, she decided to share what she had learned by launching a website. One day, she discovered that managing the site had taken over her life. It is now the Parent's Guide to Cord Blood Foundation, and Verter is the full-time director.
The heart of the Parent's Guide to Cord Blood Foundation is education since awareness is the biggest challenge. Most parents have not heard of the potential of cord blood—that it contains stem cells, that these cells have medical value, and that the cells can be banked.
“People tend to think of afterbirth as medical waste, but it’s actually very valuable and the few ounces of blood that are in a typical baby’s umbilical cord contains millions of stem cells and it can save the lives of cancer patients if you donate it,” Verter said.
Parents who decide to bank have a choice: bank privately or bank publicly. Storing the blood in a public bank means it will be listed in a national registry, making it available to patients around the world who need a transplant. Public banking is also free.
Banking privately, on the other hand, is costly: approximately $2,000 for the first year, plus an annual storage fee of $100. While the cost may be prohibitive, private storage means the blood will be available exclusively to your child, should he or she need it, or to another close relative.
Clinical trials continue to discover that a number of medical conditions can be improved or cured using a child’s own cord blood, from cerebral palsy to juvenile diabetes to sickle cell anemia.
Verter largely blames ignorance for the fact that less than 5 percent of U.S. parents bank their child’s cord blood.
“The sort of people who have the tendency to save cord blood tend to be more … knowledgeable about the options out there for their kids and want to make sure they have done everything possible for their child,” Verter said.
Cord blood is the blood that remains in the umbilical cord after a baby is born. For an average-sized baby, the 2 to 3 oz of cord blood likely contains a few hundred million stem cells. Additionally, it is simple to harvest, causing no damage to the mother or infant: A needle is stuck in the umbilical cord, and the blood pulled into a bag and sent to a lab.
Stem cells are medically important because they are able to renew themselves and become different types of cells. When a stem cell divides, it produces both another stem cell and another type of cell. Thus, they can be used to replenish the body.
“So you can take a person who has leukemia, give them a high dose of chemotherapy and total body radiation, and then you pump in a cord blood collection that has been kept in a freezer into this patient and a few weeks later, those cells will have divided and created an entirely new immune system for the person,” Verter disclosed.
According to Verter, 70 percent of people who need a transplant cannot find a donor in their family and are forced to search the public registry.
“You read in the paper stories of people who need transplants,” she noted. “People tend to think ‘Oh, it will happen to somebody else, it won’t happen to me or anyone I know.’”
A 2008 study revealed that the lifetime probability of someone in the United States needing a stem cell transplant is 1 in 200.
Rather than steering parents in one direction, Verter’s foundation tries to present the facts and let parents make their own choice.
“We don’t just put out promotional things that are inspired by companies who want us to drum up business for them,” Verter said. “Everything we say is scientifically and medically accurate. It’s balanced presentation.”
Families may also be interested in a federal program that provides free cord blood banking to those who have a family member with a medical condition treatable by a stem cell transplant. A low-income mother in Texas whose child had leukemia came to the Parent’s Guide after a doctor advised her to save the cord blood from the baby she was expecting. In less than two hours, Verter connected her with the free program.
Public donation used to be a thorny path. Parents would have to give birth at a hospital with a collection program. Today, however, many banks accept mail-in donations and parents may even get a free kit sent straight to their door.
Verter encourages families considering public or private banking to visit her organization’s website, which features the first searchable map for finding a cord blood donation location or a bank that accepts mail-ins.
Have you ever considered banking your child's cord blood? Share your experiences and thoughts.
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