Cord Blood and Tissue Banking

This is something that the hubster and I have been looking in to.  We decided to enroll in a free "class" to educate ourselves about banking cord blood and tissue.  Our care provider teams up with Stemcyte and provides a free, one-hour "class".  I did not go into this blindly.  I knew first and foremost, it would be a sale pitch, but I was hoping that I would come out of it with some new information that I didn't know before.


I had already discussed it some with my doctor and I knew where I was headed with my decision, but the hubster really wanted to get more information.  I couldn't see how it could hurt.  Famous last words?


It was full class of 9 couples.  We were offered snack and refreshments before the "class" started.  It did not start well.  We watched 3 videos; one which was produced by KPBS and actually featured my first OB/GYN with Sharp (she ended up moving her practice to Del Mar and I was not going to follow her) and two which were essentially utilizing scare tactics on soon-to-be parents.


Our "teacher" was an older gentleman who obviously was trained to present the information as fact without claiming it to be fact - loosely thowing out that stem cells will cure your baby of autism or help the baby walk again.


One of the slides said that there were 70 studies going on in China that treated X, Y, and Z, illnesses.  That was it.  And maybe that's the point.  There are studies going on, but no one really needs to know whether these studies were successful, what the outcomes were, or where they were being done.


It's blatant lying in my opinion.  I get they are selling a service, but what also galls me is that they also play up donating your cord blood and tissue to their "public" bank.  Sounds all nice and for the sake of humanity and all, but what you can later infer is that they later on charge insurance companies $50k to use any of the donated cord blood and tissue that they harvested for free or free from the mothers.  I'm sure they pay Sharp a heavy fee to have staff in their hospital 5 days a week from 6 am to 11 pm to collect donated blood.


It was just scare tactics of all the potential illnesses that your baby could come down with and would desperately need cord blood, but also grandma and grandpa.  They are getting old!  They will need your baby's cord tissue for their survival!  If you this to be available, you should extort your parents for $5k apiece!


I believe that there are 80 diseases that can be treated and cured by the use of stem cells.  80 diseases back by scientific data and studies that pass through a rigorous process.  I, however, do not believe stem call can claim ongoing research and trials as cures for autism, Alzheimer's, stroke, and a slew of other illnesses.  Don't get me wrong.  I think great things can be done with cord blood and the potential it has is unlimited at this point.  There is a lot of research in this field and maybe 10-15 years from now, this will be standard.


We are still on the fence about going forward with this, not because we don't believe in the PROVEN science, it's more the cost.  I'm also not crazy about using this company.  I don't approve of their sales practices.