Cord blood banking or cord blood donation?

[Anonymous]

Donation, hands down. Cord blood banking is a scam and takes away from donations that could save lives.

[Anonymous]

My husband is a pediatric hematologist and a blood bank physician. I am glad that so many people on this thread have decided to donate and not store! My husband says that cord blood banking is a scam and a waste of money. If your baby develops a blood disorder, you're not going to use the baby's cord blood anyway b/c those cells have the same genetics (and thus development of the same blood disorder). If you have another child (sibling) who needs the cells, you wouldn't use the cord blood anyway - you'd use the live child to obtain cells. He says the only way you'd use it is if you had a sibling who needed the cells and the donating sibling had died. A one in a zillion chance and not worth the money!

[Anonymous]

My DS has a rare disease that has no cure as of yet. I have been beating myself up for not banking his cord blood when he was born. Not that there are treatments identified, utilizing cord blood. Moreso, what happens in 15 years if they develop a cure and it would have helped?

I thank all the posters with family contacts/professionals that have highlighted the shortcomings. Helps a bit with my anxiety.

[Anonymous]

My husband and I agonized over the decision about whether to store privately until I asked my OB and some other doctors about it. Every doctor I asked thought it was a big money-making scam. MY OB brought up a good point and that's that in this economy, who knows if these companies will even be around in 10 years. Now, many months after delivering and donating to a public bank, I feel really relieved that we didn't waste the $$$.