cord blood donation

Lindsay, Thanks for the really informative article. Donating cord blood seems to be a relatively simple (and free) procedure if your hospital or local clinic offers the service. Most of the controversy seems to be based around private cord blood banking, and whether it's worth the sometimes exorbitant prices that some private blood banks charge. The people who can afford it claim that it's just like any other insurance, but the people who can't afford it (most regular people) are very skeptical of whether it will be used or not.

I remember agonizing over this decision, and then it wasn't even an option when my daughter was born at 29 weeks. They waited to cut the cord so she could have as much of the cord blood in her as possible. Preemies are notoriously anemic and some have to have blood transfusions....thankfully that didn't happen with us. We met with our ped earlier in the pregnancy and he basically said those who can afford it will do it, and everyone else doesn't worry because it's so expensive it's not really a viable option for most families. Having the decision made for me....well, that was one less thing to stress over I suppose! Good luck!