Cord Blood Banking: Is it worth it?

Started to think about this matter once I got pregnant but only yesterday, I was actively asking around for pricing and reading up on it. Since we will want to go back to Asia one day, we thought that banking the cord blood in Malaysia or Singapore will be a better idea considering that the pricing are so much cheaper than in the States. So, I started with a cord bank called Stemlife in Malaysia and managed to get the pricing for banking my twins' cord blood. The total cost for processing as well as the storage is managable and definitely cheaper than what we have here in the States but I was really doubting their efficiency when comes to collecting the blood specimen. I was told that the logistic cost will be to cover a roundtrip airfare and accomodation for a staff to come over to the States to collect it!!! I never hear such thing before as most of the cord bank uses medical courier (the type of courier use to ship transplant organ). WT and I were very annoyed by the service and it is impossible for the person to get the specimen back to Malaysia within 48 hours. Worst still, I'm expecting twins and we just don't know when the babies will arrive. Can't use the due date as to when the person has to fly over. Ridiculous.

Some doctors and organizations, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), have expressed concern that cord blood banks may capitalize on the fears of vulnerable new parents by providing misleading information about the statistics of bone marrow transplants. The AAP doesn't recommend cord blood banking for families who don't have a history of disease. That's because research has not yet determined the likelihood that a child would ever need his or her own stem cells, nor has it confirmed that transplantation using self-donated cells rather than cells from a relative or stranger is safer or more effective. According to the AAP, "private storage of cord blood as 'biological insurance' is unwise. Other doctors and researchers support saving umbilical cord blood as a source of blood-forming stem cells in every delivery - mainly because of the promise that stem-cell research holds for the future.

Other than that, I also found out that cord blood is only use to treat diseases such as leukemia, blood disoders, inherited metabolic disoders and immunodeficiencies. Another surprising finding is that diseases such as leukemia, blood disoders, immunodeficiencies and Non-Hodgkins lymphoma are only effective when using the stem cells that comes from someone else. Other diseases still shows variable results or still undergoing investigation. There are research currently done on multiple sclerosis but we will not expect to hear about the results anytime soon. They also claim that research on child diabetes and parkinson disease are on the way.

Also, the amount of cord blood collected during birth is only enough to treat a child and young adults (whom is around 100-115lbs). So, even a teenager who is over this weight will not be qualify. Somehow, WT and I still think that bone marrow is still the best at the moment (despite the pain the donor will have to go thru) eventhough suitable bone marrow may not be readily available when needed compared to self storage cord blood. Again, cord blood/stem cell research is still in its infancy.

We will have to seriously think about the pros and cons before we make the decision. I've consulted two doctors and they felt that it is not worth it, not only because it is expensive but there is a likelihood that we will not be using it at all.