I am a mom of four kids, and only one of my kids has their cord blood banked. This is not because it is expensive, or because I don’t think it is effective or because I don’t think we will need it. It’s because I relied on information from sources that had no idea what they were talking about, and now it is too late.

For as long as I can remember I have been hearing people say “I just want a healthy baby” and that is ultimately the ideal situation. We just assume our children will be bright and healthy and our biggest worry will be whether they will eat all of their dinner.

I was one of those parents that was looking at life through rose-coloured glasses until one of my childhood friend’s child died of cancer. It opened my eyes.

I was one of those parents that was looking at life through rose-coloured glasses until one of my childhood friend’s child died of cancer. It opened my eyes. I started to do research of my own.

One of the first things I started to research with my fourth child was cord blood banking and everyone but the mailman had an opinion about it. Even though cord blood banking has been around for years there is still a lot of false and misleading information around, as well as lots of questions. Let’s clear some up.

1. Lots of people think that cord blood/tissue banking is not affordable. This is not true at all. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the cost was relatively low compared to the benefits. At just $1,125 for the first year and $125 for each subsequent year, it can be budgeted in. Your bank can also help with financing and payment options, so keep that in mind.
2. “It’s not worth it.” In the off chance that your child develops one of the 80 diseases that cord blood is used to treat I would argue that it most definitely is worth it. With the current medical research and advancements happening, who knows how many diseases this can treat in our children’s lifetime.
3. Delayed clamping vs. blood banking. There seems to be a big battle between whether babies cord blood should be returned to them after birth with delayed cord clamping or whether we should be banking it for later use. I don’t know the answer but it is important to mention that neither do the doctors. But you can get the benefits of both if you delay clamping for no longer than one minute.
4. It takes a long time. Nope. In fact, it takes just 5 minutes and there is no harm to either mommy or baby!
5. Banking your kid’s cord blood is a once in a lifetime opportunity that will offer you reassurance in case of health issues down the line. It is a complete genetic match to your baby and can be used on siblings in some cases. When we were looking at our options my husband said: “how can we bank this cord blood and not the other?”

Indeed, how can we not?

Learn more about Cord Blood Banking with the experts over at Cells for Life.