Cordblood

C

Carol C Brown

Registered User
What's your view on this ?
We are thinking about it,but I heard from the nurse that if anything go wrong with the bloodcord , those storage company are not taking the responsibility.
I know it's like buying insurance , you dont want it to be happen but just in case.
My friend's brother is a Dr. and he doesnt recommend it
 
Hi Carol,

I've recently obtained some info from Cordlife and Healthbaby. My husband and I are still considering about storing our baby's cord blood when he's born. I had a meeting with one of the consultant from Cordlife recently and was told HK$ 1,500 enrollment fee is required to be paid before proceeding with any testing with the maternal blood.
Once the blood is tested and confirmed free from infectious disease tests - HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Cytomegalovirus, Syphillis and HTLV, 2nd payment HK$ 10,500 processing and testing fee is required. We were advised by the consultant, should anything went wrong with the maternal blood testing, Cordlife will waive the processing & testing fee of HK$10,500. The fees varied from 5 years plan up to 18 years plan.

I think the idea of storing cord blood is important for our next generation, considering the number of disease can be treated. However, I'm yet to meet anyone whom have had their baby's cord blood stored.

May I ask what was the reason your Doctor friend did not recommend this?
 
I stored my first son's cord blood 2 yrs ago with Healthy Baby. I am now having a 2nd one and wonder if I need to store his cord blood again. Can my first son's cord blood be used for the 2nd one in case in need?
 
Mama Moo , Thanks for your info
I wasnt taking about the processing & testing fee , was on about if anything go wrong with the cordblood during that 18yrs , they wont take the blame , (touch wood) at the time we need to use it ..it's not about the $$ , I just dont know which one to trust , and i dont know if it happen to anyone ( the blood cell go wrong and they cant use it when they need to )
Can you ask the question for me when u meet your consultant?
The Dr. friend didnt recommend it is because he think if it meant to be happen , u cant avoid it. And the cordblood doesnt treat all the illness anyway...i guess its like some people buy insurance and some dont
 
my Dr recommended me to store cordblood stem cells as it can treat more than 90 diseases over the past 10 years. He said that with the advanced technology, more complicated diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, DM, Lupus etc could be treated by cordblood stem cells in the near future.

it's just like buying an insurance, in case it can be used to treat a disorder later...(touchwood...)

but the difference is there is only a chance to collect my child's cord blood, undoubtedly i dun wanna miss it.

This month i had joined 3 talks organized by Healthbaby, Cryolife and Cordlife. Both my husband and i prefer chosing Healthbaby as it adopts the most advanced storage system which can maintain stable temperature and stem cell viability

BTW, the consultant of healthbaby told me that all $$ including enrollment fee will be refunded if Dr/ nurse contaminated the cordblood.
 
Thanks for sharing the information as my baby is due Decemeber and we are now thinking whether to store the cordblood or not.

We definitely prefer Healthbaby as they seemed professional when we visited their counter in the baby expo in Aug.

In terms of fees, the whole package cost about HKD 30K.

I also have the same concern as Carol C Brown, what if the company goes bankrupt during the 18 years. When we were children, there was no such thing and we are still grown up healthy & good.

But when I have a second thought, the world's changing and we simply can't compare our childhood life to our babies.

So as long as we can afford it, I'd prefer storing the cord blood to purchasing an actual insurance for my baby. I think at the end we will probably agree to it. ^L^
 
check the terms of the contracts they offer. We have chosen Cordlife and there is a clause that explains and even lets you choose what happens to the cells if they go bankrupt. We also have a choice to move our cells to another company or country at any stage - the costs vary, but we still have "ownership".
 
Fisona said:
Thanks for sharing the information as my baby is due Decemeber and we are now thinking whether to store the cordblood or not.

We definitely prefer Healthbaby as they seemed professional when we visited their counter in the baby expo in Aug.

In terms of fees, the whole package cost about HKD 30K.

I also have the same concern as Carol C Brown, what if the company goes bankrupt during the 18 years. When we were children, there was no such thing and we are still grown up healthy & good.

But when I have a second thought, the world's changing and we simply can't compare our childhood life to our babies.

So as long as we can afford it, I'd prefer storing the cord blood to purchasing an actual insurance for my baby. I think at the end we will probably agree to it. ^L^
Click to expand...

Dear Fisona,

Agree! i'm going to purchase the services provided by Healthbaby as it seems much more professional than Cryolife and Cordlife.

I had already asked the consultant of healthbaby that what if the company goes bankrupt. From the storage services agreement, it states that Healthbaby will take the responsibility and transfer clients' cordblood samples to a blood bank chosen by baby's parents. Healthbaby will bear the neccessary expenses. So no worry.

Although the Healthbaby storage fee is higher, it's worth storing my baby's treasurable cordblood in a cordblood bank with reliability and responsibility.
 
I've been doing some research myself too and still debating on whether to store my baby's cord blood. Yeah, I went to the expo in August too and there were a few companies that I had in mind.

It's funny how you say Healthbaby will 'bear' the burden of the fees in transfering all the cordblood to another company. If they go bankrupt, I'm not too sure if they will even have the money to pay off their debts.

If I can recall from my visit, Cordlife was the only company who seemed more professional and was also a listed company. Not only were their consultants friendly but they were also very knowledgable. They explained everything from top to bottom and wasn't forcing you to purchase something (unlike others).

MY doctor did recommend me to store the cordblood too. I'm still having deep thoughts about it. Nice to see other's views though.
 
Thanks, all, for your valuable info. I, too, am considering which company to use in HK as this service is highly recommended by my Dr.

Just curious if any of you may have looked into the success stories of these companies? The main reason being that I was initially tempted to use Smart Cells since they have successes in Asian countries (e.g. Singapore); however, my Dr. alerted me that their storage is in UK, being the only down side.

Feedback and thoughts would be appreciated.
 
Ask your doctor:
1) is he getting a commission from the referral?
2) what are the specific reasons for the recommendation?

The success stories are minimal at best and non-existent at worst.
Internet is full of information about this.
We had 3 kids and didn't store anything.
 
I think some doctors do have a fee if you want to store the cordblood or umbilical cord. As for my doctor, he was kind enough not to charge me extra for it. I'm not sure if he has liase with the company that I stored with though. However, his views to storing the cordblood was really positive and so I took his opinion and in the end decided to store with CordLife.

NewBunny, I suggest you don't store it with the company you are looking into. If you are based in HK, why would you even want to be connected in the UK? In case of emergencies or if the cordblood will have to be used, you will need so much paper work and delays in extracting it from the UK. In addition, all those regulations that HK citizens are not familiar with will make the whole processs so much more complicated. I relly don't understand why you would go for them. You would obviously want to be closer to your cordblood (i.e. in HK).

I'd say you should rethink your options and weigh the consequences.
I'm close to being 6 months now. so excited!
 
lorraine said:
NewBunny, I suggest you don't store it with the company you are looking into. If you are based in HK, why would you even want to be connected in the UK? In case of emergencies or if the cordblood will have to be used, you will need so much paper work and delays in extracting it from the UK. In addition, all those regulations that HK citizens are not familiar with will make the whole processs so much more complicated. I relly don't understand why you would go for them. You would obviously want to be closer to your cordblood (i.e. in HK).

I'd say you should rethink your options and weigh the consequences.
I'm close to being 6 months now. so excited!
Click to expand...

lorraine: thanks for your feedback. i will need to find out more about extracting from UK. having said that, there are a few reasons why I do not want to store in HK (Healthbaby or Cordlife), as my Dr recommend me to store both blood+cord.

1. When I contact Healthbaby's hotline, they were not professional, and storing blood+cord is >$80K (vs $49K).
2. I did not get any reply from Cordlife when I inquire online. I believe their charge is in the same range.
3. I have to admit that I am not a totally confident of HK Science Park and their storage, and with HK regulations changing every so often, it's really difficult for me to see paying for 18/20/25 years storage, esp. when the fee is much higher than elsewhere.
4. Based on my research, once the blood and/or cord is frozen & assuming that it'll be transported properly to the designated hospital, the place where the blood/cord is stored does not really matter.

Thanks again for your thoughts, and enjoy your 3rd trimester!
 
no problem, newbunny! Yeah, its always good to have a second opinion. I walked by smartcell briefly, but didn't even take it into consideration when i noticed it was stored in the UK. Also, its such a small company..def not an option for me. When are you giving birth newbunny? seems like you are due soon, better start deciding!

I didn't have a problem with contacting the inquiry hotline, as i found all my information through the babyexpo...but even though i contacted them again, they were really friendly and responded to me really quickly. All of them seemed really knowledgable and the service was superb! That's why in the end i chose to store with Cordlife.

I think cord + cordblood cost about $47K, but i only went with cordblood. I might change my mind later, but we shall see on that. I actually think most of the places are about the same...that's why its so hard to choose.

That's funny about what you said about hK Science park..but like you said, once its frozen, then it really doesn't matter. So for me, i think science park is the most ideal place! Its out of all the city centres and all that..I wouldn't want a nitrogen tank next to my office in Central, if you know what i mean. haha!
 
Sarah_Lotus said:
I notice that throughout this thread the main idea of storing cord blood is for insurance purposes. I hope you all know that exclusive breastfeeding will greatly reduce a baby?s chance of getting almost all of the diseases cord blood collection is supposedly going to cure, http://www.llli.org/nb/nbbenefits.html
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that's rather interesting! never really heard about that before..do you have further details or articles?
 
Below are some links I?ve found about various diseases that cord blood collection claims to cure:

Leukemia
http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/10/26_breastfeeding.shtml
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10528028

Lymphoma
http://www.breastfeeding.com/all_about/all_about_leukemia.html

Brain tumors
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100419132403.htm

Neuroblastoma
http://www.springerlink.com/content/mp7467wc1unyxu81/

Ovarian Cancer
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17450440

Testicular Cancer
http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/97/19/1446.full

Rheumatoid Arthritis
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=40310
(For mother rather than baby)

Sickle Cell Disease
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/117/5/1763/reply#pediatrics_el_1988
(Not evidence for reducing disease but very interesting comment)

Multiple Sclerosis
http://www.breastfeeding.com/all_about/all_about_ms.html

Did you know that there is a component in breast milk called HAMLET ? Human alpha-lactalbumin made lethal to tumor cells ? which actually kills cancer cells?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12665051
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15867328

Also there are stem cells in breast milk ? this means that babies are meant to ingest stem cells as they grow ? I have no idea what health implications this has but it seems like it should be important.
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20081102-16879.html
http://www.themedguru.com/node/35809 (speculation)
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21160-breast-milk-stem-cells-may-bypass-ethical-dilemmas.html (more speculation)
 
For those interested and reading about the above mentioned diseases and how cord-blood can help cure them, search and look at the articles carefully. In almost 100% of the cases, the cord blood used to treat the condition did not come from personally stored cord blood but rather from blood banks.

Personally stored cord blood is experimental at best and for most people a complete waste of money. It is only useful in extremely rare cases.

Donate it (if you can find someone to take it) and do some good, but paying and storing it yourself is a big waste of money except for a very minute number of cases.
 
Thanks Sarah! That's some really interesting news you have here.

Well, I'm still pretty for Cord blood if you ask me, since I've already signed up to store mine. I've done a lot of my research too before signing up with this service! From what I've heard, there were cases where there was a person who was willing to donate her cordblood, but the patient couldn't wait long enough for her generosity. Another one was that the success rate of a transplant by using your own blood will be much higher compared to one that is donated by a third party, since the 'blood match' would be higher.

Breast feeding is definitely a great factor and I am looking forward to doing that, as it contains the most nutritious substance we can ever have. I'd say breast feeding is more like 'trying to prevent' the disease from happening..whereas, signing up to store your cord blood is to 'buy an insurance' incase something does go wrong.

Donate it if you wish and you can still have a chance of saving a life!
 
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