If you have been to baby fair, chances are you are approached by some promoters from private cord blood bank. Like any parent, I wanted the best for my child and was tempted to sign up for cord blood storage despite the high cost involved. After all, there is no U-turn once you missed the only one chance to store.
What is cord blood?
Cord blood is blood from the umbilical cord. After the umbilical cord separates from your child, the doctor will extract the cord blood for processing, freezing and storage.
After doing my own research, these are the reasons why I decided to not store privately.
1. Chances of using the cord blood is extremely low
In Singapore, there is only a handful of people who withdraw their cord blood from private banked cord blood for use. Doctors estimate between 0.04% to 0.0005% of use.
The low rate of use for privately banked cord blood is mainly because of the second point…
2. Patient’s own cord blood is likely unsuitable for own use
The cord blood is mainly used for blood related diseases like leukaemia. However, this also means that is is likely the patient is unable to use his/her own cord blood since the blood may already carry the genetic abnormality that causes the blood or immune system to fail in the first place.
Hence, cord blood stored in the public bank has a higher chance of being used (2.2 per cent).
3. More research needed to expand the use of cord blood
The low rate of use also means that there are not many diseases that can use the cord blood. Most diseases involved blood cancers like leukaemia and lymphoma.
4. Private banks may have poorer quality cord blood
Public banks are highly regulated. Private banks on the other hand may not meet stringent requirements, which can cause stored cord blood to be of lesser quality. Thus, the stored blood might not be useful after all.
“In order to meet international requirement for a life-saving cord blood transplant, all collected Cord Blood Units (CBUs) will be evaluated for volume of blood, cell count, cell viability, and infectious disease amongst other panel of testing requirements. These will ensure only samples of the highest quality are banked” ~SCBB
5. I can potentially help others and my child
Donating cord blood to public bank means I can potentially help others. The more people donate, the larger the community of cord blood available and thus higher chance of finding a right match.
And *touch wood* if my child ever needs cord blood, he has the priority to receive cord blood from the public bank too. And if his own cord blood is still available and is suitable, he can also withdraw for personal use.
Therefore, I decided to donate his cord blood to SCBB and used the money saved to buy a more comprehensive insurance coverage for baby.
Do note that SCBB’s requirement for donation is quite stringent, has to meet even higher cell count than private banks so if the blood is found unsuitable for storage, it will be used for research purposes unless otherwise requested by donor. They also offer private banking services at lower fees than private banks in the event that the cord blood does not meet donation requirement and the parents still want to store.
For my second baby, I would choose delayed cord clamping and also donate to SCBB (hopefully the cell counts are good even after the delayed clamping).