About last week at this time we had a change of heart about banking the cord blood. This is a somewhat controversial method of saving the cord blood to harvest stem cells in hopes that it may be used in future treatment of a disease . The stem cells can also be used to treat the mother, a sibling or the father if there is a match. The likelihood of needing it is very, very slim. It is, in essence, an insurance policy. 

Anyone expecting a child is bombarded with advertising from the major cord blood players – Cord Blood Registry, ViaCord. The costs are generally in the ~$2000 range with $150 annually to preserve it. The doctors we spoke with stated that they would not do it if given the choice and that’s what we decided at first. But as we approached the birth date, we started to wonder if we should reconsider.  We can afford it and there’s the enormous fear that we might someday regret not doing it.

It occurred to us that there may be lower cost solutions available. Perhaps there was a respectable, reliable blood bank that performed these services without having to support millions of dollars in advertising (TV commercials, brochures, magazines, schwag in your OB/GYN welcome packet). We found an umbrella organization that coordinated six unrelated banks around the nation into one central unit, undoubtedly so they could compete with the massive marketing campaigns of the big players.

Using an online comparison, you can easily weigh the cost/advantage various banking options.  The top listing, Alpha Cord, is what we went with.  Of course, that $775/$115 annually is eye-popping next to the $1995/$150 figure, but closer examination reveals that that figure is exclusively for the lab in Utah which has never performed a transplant, has no certifications and has no generator backup were a power failure to occur.  Um, noooo. 

Being in Chicago, we wouldn’t use the Utah lab anyway.  Unfortunately, the Chicago bank is the most expensive  at $1395 initial/$115 annual storage, but has been around a long time with a good track record.  See the full Alpha Cord lab comparison here.

Alas, Alpha Cord screwed up our order intially — we paid for overnight shipping on Monday but the packet was not shipped until Wednesday.  One after-hours rep even casually asked if we wanted to cancel the order (as though it were a pizza order that was running late.)  Between the missing shipment and the overly casual attitude, we were rather angry.  What if Elizabeth went into labor that evening?  We’d be outta luck.  The next day, Elizabeth gave them an earful and they refunded our shipping plus gave us the first year free of storage (and apologized, too).  We were satisfied and received our kit on Thursday, pre baby.

Since Elizabeth had already completed most of the application over the phone, we only need to fax (or mail) in some signatures and notify Northwestern Hospital that we were going to harvest the cord blood.  From there, we  just make sure we bring the kit to the hospital when she goes into labor.  After harvesting, we will basically mail it via FedEx to the bank.  Yes, that is as odd as it sounds.  They assured us it was safe and standard.

I want to add that we initially considered donating the cord blood, but we did not meet the criteria due to past medical issues.