Cord Blood Banking: Weighing the Pros and Cons

If you are a parent, or are expecting, chances are you've probably heard about the controversial subject of cord blood banking. This is when you have some blood saved from your baby's umbilical cord after birth. The reason for this is that if your child gets sick or needs a bone marrow transplant, you will have this blood available. If this could save your child's life, then why isn't it more popular? The answer to this could be the cost of cord blood banking or it could be the facts surrounding this procedure.

There are many companies in the United States that deal with cord blood banking, the most well known among these being ViaCord and Cord Blood Registry. If you're planning on storing your child's cord blood with one of these companies, you may need to save some money first. ViaCord charges $1,500 to collect the cord blood and then you will need to pay $95 every year for them to store it. Because they can store it for up to 21 years, it would cost you $3,500. ViaCord's direct competitor Cord Blood Registry, is a little cheaper to collect the blood, charging $1,290. The same $95 annual fee is charged through Cord Blood Registry.

So after seeing those monetary figures, have your thoughts changed? Let's now look at some of the facts about the procedure of cord blood banking. If you decide that this sounds like something you'd like to do, how likely is it that you'll ever need your child's cord blood? Approximately 1 out of every 2,700 people who bank their child's blood will ever use it. Something to keep in mind about that statistic, however, is that if your child had their cord blood in the bank, doctors would be much more likely to use that before administering blood from a donor. Even if the blood was taken from a sibling, there is only a 25% chance that it would be a match. Another positive to cord blood banking is that it is always available when you need it.