Private Cord Blood Banking

Some people choose to store their baby's cord blood in a private cord blood bank rather than a public cord blood bank. In a public cord blood bank, after you donate your baby's cord blood, it is available for anyone to use. However, in a private cord blood bank, you can store your baby's cord blood for a fee, and no one is able to access that cord blood without your say-so. This keeps your baby's cord blood available for use within your own family indefinitely.

Both private and public cord blood banks have their pros and cons; here is an examination of the facts that you can use to determine if private banking is right for you.

Pros

By using a private cord blood bank, you guarantee that should someone in your family need your baby's cord blood for their own use, it will be readily available to you.

In addition, your baby's cord blood should be an appropriate match for members of the immediate family. This is especially good if you or your partner is or a certain race or mixed-race, where there may be fewer donors of your race or heritage available.

Using privately banked cord blood also reduces the chances of graft versus host disease, infections, or rejections, should someone in your family need stem cell treatment.

Cons

Cord blood cannot be used to treat all medical complications in the donor. For example if a blood disorder or a genetic disorder needs to be treated in your child later in life, he or she cannot use her own cord blood for treatment. This is because the same disorders will be present in their donated stem cells.

Only 25% of patients in need of cord blood are able to find a match within their family. The rest (75%) must rely on public bank donations. This means that if you do bank your baby's cord blood privately and someone in your family later needs treatment, there is no guarantee that the cord blood you have stored will be a match.

Private cord blood banking is expensive and odds of you capitalizing on your investment are rather low.