by Robert O. Dewald on Jan 4, 2012 | Health and Fitness

Cord Blood: A Potential Life Saver

I’ve always enjoyed watching 1000 Ways to Die late at night on Spike after my wife had gone to bed but I never really considered the full weight of the show’s premise until my wife told me she was pregnant. We had been trying to have a child for a few months with no success; I was beginning to think my boys were having issues, so when she told me the news I was filled with a sense of elation and relief. However, it didn’t take long for that sense to turn into dread. Sure, I had the usual jitters most soon-to-be first time father’s face but all of a sudden I began to think of all I had learned during my late night television marathons and realized I would soon have someone relying completely on me to keep him, it turned out to be a boy by the way, safe.

I began with the typical overprotective actions. Baby proof this, child proof that. We began looking for a house in a nicer, safer community even though where we were was more than safe enough for child rearing. Gone was the two seated clunker, a car I was rather fond of really, and welcomed was the high safety rated SUV. We made sure to get a doctor we felt safe with, a process that took more appointments at more offices than I can remember, and followed her safety advice to the letter. It didn’t take long for my wife, the extremely independent woman that she is, to tire of being treated like a fragile glass statue all the time but I still danced as close to the line of overprotection as I possibly could while keeping her from becoming too agitated.

Looking back, it’s all admittedly laughable now but if it hadn’t been because of my overprotective mind state at the time, we may not have made the most important decision of all our lives. I’m talking about our decision to have our child’s cord blood frozen and stored.

It all started during a routine doctor’s visit when my wife was still only in her second trimester. Everything was going well, our doctor told us everything was in order and then asked if we had considered having our child’s cord blood collected and stored. Of course, we had never heard of such a procedure and ask her for a few more details. Apparently, cord blood refers to the blood that is still in the umbilical cord after it has been severed shortly after birth. The cord blood is made up of stem cells that can be used in genetic therapies to treat certain types of cancer, blood diseases, and immune system issues.

Our doctor told us that there were two main options of collection and storage that entirely depended on the cord blood banks we decided to go with. Public banks would collect and store our child’s cord blood free of charge, but the bank had the authority to use the blood as it saw fit which meant that the chances of our child actually being able to use his cord blood should something happen would be slim to none. This is a bit of a concern because someone’s own cord blood is the best to use to ensure better chances of gene therapy success. The best alternative is a relative’s cord blood but neither me nor my wife had ours collected and stored. A private bank would collect and store the cord blood for an initial collection fee to collect the sample and an annual storage fee to keep it stored. Of course, we would have complete control over when, where, and who used the cord blood later on.

We decided not to take any chances and had a private cord blood bank collect and store the blood for us. The initial fees were pretty high, especially when combined with all the other expenses of a new born child, but it’s now been five years and I feel more secure knowing my child would have a fighting chance should the worst happen. It’s a parent’s worst nightmare, make it easier to bare and have your child’s cord blood saved if you can. You’ll be glad you did.

About The Author: Robert O. Dewald has written this article.

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