Saving Umbilical Cord Blood?

[xmysticprincessx]

I'm about 4 months from my due date, so I've started looking at ideas for a birth plan. One thing I noticed on a few sites was saving the umbilical cord blood. All of the websites I have seen are pro saving the cord blood. (One site I visited was viacord.com.) There is nothing negative nor is there nothing about risks. (One site said that it is 100% risk free. I can see their point that after birth the umbilical cord is useless to the baby and mother and would be thrown away anyways. But I have this mistrust of the medical profession. Plus, we know of countless other things that are said to be "100% safe" but really arent.) Some of what I read mentions stem cell research and using the cord blood/stem cells to help cure a HUGE list of diseases. But the sites also mention that there is no guarantee that the cord blood or stem cells will cure diseases in the future. (One thing the sites say is that there is a good chance of a match for family members.)
So I'm wondering what everyone else's opinion is on saving cord blood or if you had any experiences with this. Thanks!

[mum2sarah]

I don't know a whole lot about saving cord blood, but it might be worth asking, if you are considering doing it, at what point they cut the cord to get the cord blood. IMO, the majority of the cord blood needs to go back to baby, which is why a lot of midwives and natural oriented dr's say to wait until the cord stops pulsating before it is cut. The reason it's good to do this is because that extra blood pulsating back to baby gives the baby a healthy amount of iron stores. Depending upon when you want to introduce solids (or when your baby decides it's time ), you want the baby to have a good store of iron, because they don't get much from breastmilk (or formula for that matter, because it is in a form that is not easily absorbed and mostly comes out in their stools). The better the store of iron, the less you have to worry about hurrying to introduce solid foods with iron, which means the baby will not need to start solids until he/she is ready. It's usually not a problem, even in babies which needed to have the cord cut early, but IMO, it's best to wait if you can to cut the cord. If you do that, I can't imagine there'd be much blood left to do anything with, but, like I said, I really don't know for sure. It's worth asking about, though, I think...

[feline01]

We did bank both babies cord blood using viacord. We did the research and decided that it's a good idea though a bit pricey. I can't remember how much now though. They kept the cords on the babies for a few minutes after birth then clipped them. Viacord sent a package that the ob/gyn used to preserve and then ship them to their labs. If the babies ever develop anything horrible like leukemia and many other diseases, there will be treatment available immediately using the cord blood. I hope the money is wasted, that we never need to use their cord blood but if we do, it's there.