March 24, 2010 • 12 mins
Like placenta, the blood contained in the umbilical cord isn't always considered a waste product of birth. In this episode, Molly and Cristen discuss why some people choose to save their baby's cord blood -- and where they store it.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff mom never told you?
From House top works dot com. Hey there, and welcome
to the podcast. I'm Kristin, I'm Molly Now, Molly, you
(00:21):
do remember, I hope. We did a episode recently on
placenta phag How can I forget that one? Yes, basically
the idea of eating your placenta after you give birth
for superstinct, for super strength, and to ward off postpartum depression.
You guys can, if you haven't heard it, give it
(00:42):
a listen. But after that episode, we got in a
few listener emails about cord blood, which is a lot
of umbilical cord blood comes from it's actually housed in
the placenta, And these mothers have written in saying, hey,
you didn't talk about cord blood. It's really important for
you to possibly save that that blood and bank it. Yeah,
(01:06):
because it has some pretty impressive properties. And when you
guys talk, we listen. And thus today's episode is should
you bank your baby's umbilical cord blood? Yes, because cord
blood is a source of a specific type of blood
forming stem cell and can possibly cure a host of diseases,
especially leukemia and an lymphoma, and cord blood derivative embryonic
(01:31):
like stem cells are similar to embryonic stem cells, but
far less controversial. Well, because you're using something that would
have been thrown away anyway. Yeah, I mean, like the
placentic can be a waste product at birth unless you
think ahead and you're like, hey, doc, midwife, doula, whoever's
down there, save that, save that cord, save that cord blood,
(01:52):
because cord cord blood is one of three sources for
blood forming cells that can reconstitute someone's immune stem weakened
immune system, and the other two sources are bone marrow
and peripheral or circulating blood. But we should probably clarify
that they are not just basic fetal stem cells, Like
they're not going to grow you a new kidney. If
you need one, it's it's it's a blood forming cell, yes,
(02:16):
just to clarify, all right, So you have to decide
if you're going to bank it before delivery, because you
only have about fifteen minutes after the baby is born
to get the collection of blood. What they'll do is
they will clamp and cut the umbilical cord and then
collect the blood um and if you don't do that
within fifteen minutes, the cord will essentially clamp itself off
from the exposure to air, and that blood is gone.
(02:38):
And it's it's very easy, completely harmless to mother and babe.
They will either basically attach a bag so that the
bag fills up with the blood or they will in
sort of syringe and draw the blood out, just like
they would draw blood from your vein. Yeah, and then
once it is collected, the cord blood will be frozen
in liquid nitrogen to preserve it. And you can either
(03:00):
store the cord blood in a public cord blood bank
or a private chord blood bank. And this is where
things get kind of controversial. Yeah, if you decide to
put it into a private bank, uh, you're gonna have
to pay for it. Not surprisingly, You're gonna have to
pay usually an initial fee of up to two thousand
dollars and then an annual storage fee which might be
(03:21):
around hundred bucks a year. And some people think that
this is wrong because these banks are making money off
of cord blood, which if you donated it to a
public cord blood bank, it could go to anybody who
was in need of it. So why would you want
it to be in a private bank. You wanted to
be in a private bank if you yourself thought you
(03:42):
were going to use it. Basically, by putting it in
the private bank, it's for you and no one else
can have it. Yeah. Because, Um, if you need, for instance,
a autologousts uh CD stem cell transplant, basically, if you
need your own cells too, if you come down with
some kind of disease or condition, Uh, then you're gonna
(04:04):
you can go to your private bank and you've got
your cord blood stored there and no search for a match.
It's just done. Because if you if you watch a
lot of medical shows like I do, it seems like
people are always looking for that match. In fact, there
are some shows where the woman will have a baby
to get that cord blood to save another child. But
the controversy comes because TV, like it does for many things, UH,
(04:30):
makes it look like the situation is far more common
than it actually is. Because the likelihood that you would
need your own cells, according to US study in the
journal Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, is only about
one and four hundred and thirty five. Yeah, and UM,
I think we should also point out that these cord
blood stem cells have a more potential for wider use because,
(04:53):
as opposed to stem cells taken from adult bone marrow,
a perfect match between the donor and the recipient isn't necessary.
But other studies put it those statistics that anywhere from
one in two thousand to one in two thousand, depending
on whether your family has a history of a disease
that's even treatable by cbe stem cells. Because, for instance,
(05:14):
some parents mistakenly believe that their child could be treated
with his or her own cord blood if they contract
leukemia later on, but leukemic cells are present at birth,
so the cord blood would therefore be tainted. Right And
even if you've got a sibling who's got cord blood banked,
there's only a twenty chance of these cells between siblings
(05:34):
being a match. So and in some cases the cord
blood isn't even stored because it doesn't contain enough stem cells.
Like there's some argument that um, if you are trying
to get the cored blood for an adult, there's not
even gonna be enough stem cells in there to make
a difference. You'd have to use it on a very
small person, which gives you a small wind of time
to use it. So really, when we were researching this,
(05:56):
the private cord blood bank doesn't seem like the best deal. Yeah,
in groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics do advise
parents to donate their baby's cord blood to public banks because,
unlike say stem cells that are taken from adult bone marrow,
with CD stem cells, you don't need a perfect genetic
(06:16):
match between the donor and the recipient in order for
the transplant to take. And this is very important Molly
and I learned for particularly minority patients who need the transplants.
So to clarify when we're talking about these minority chord
blood donations, we're talking about public cord blood banks now.
(06:37):
And if there's a public cord blood bank near you,
it will pay for the collection kit, for the processing,
the blood, the storage. It's completely for you, the parents,
but everyone can use it. It's not just saved for you.
It's open to anyone. And the National Marrow Donor Program
really advocates public cord blood banking, particularly to help out
(06:58):
minority patients, because cord blood doesn't need that as close
of a genetic match as bone marrow stem cells, and
more than minority patients who receive a transplant now will
use cord blood as opposed to only five to fiftent
of minority patients who could use bone marrow transplants. So
(07:19):
this is actually going a long way to to serve
these these minority patients for curing things like leukemia and lymphoma. Now,
those are the two conditions that if you have a
family history of them, if you have a family history
of some blood related disease, then those are really the
only conditions where people say you might want to do
private cord blood banking. Other than that, both that organization
(07:42):
and the American Association of Pediatrics recommends public help out,
everyone help out everybody. So to answer our questions, should
you bank your baby's cord blood, I say yes publicly, publicly.
Don't let those private banks talk you into a bad deal.
Don't be selfish with that cord blood. People save some
lives unless you're at risk for certain conditions. Okay, So
(08:04):
thanks to all the listeners who let us know about
core blood banking. It was very interested interesting to um
look into it a little bit more, UM and it
just goes to show that if you email us you
never know what will happen. We may dedicate an entire
episode to it, just to you. Just do your listeners,
all right, So let's do a few listener mails now,
people who have emailed us at mom Stuff at how
(08:25):
Stuff works dot com. I'm going to start from one
that is not signed, and it's from an old episode,
but I think it's always good to remind our listeners
of this kind of stuff. It's about our dating violence episode. Um.
And the listener writes that she was in a bad
situation that lasted for two years. Um. She did pull
(08:47):
back from her friends more and more um. And at
first her friends were like, Oh, it's the bubble, It's
the new romance bubble. But then she writes, my friends
knew this guy wasn't good for me, especially when I
quit my favorite job because he aways wanted to spend
more time together. I know I pushed my friends away,
but they were still always there for me. My rugby
team even encouraged me to crash at their places whenever
I needed to. I honestly don't think I would have
(09:09):
had the strength to move back with my parents and
and things with a boyfriend if I hadn't had a
great support system, I could still be in that city
with him doing god knows what, having forgotten all about myself.
Which brings me to my advice to listeners who suspect
friends or acquaintances of being an abusive situation. Please don't
give up on your friends. They know deep inside that
they need to leave their significant other, and they still
(09:30):
need friends outside of his his circle, but there's this
overwhelming feeling of despairing, hopelessness that surrounds them. A text
or call from time to time, and an invitation to
go out, sleepovers, etcetera. Any and all of these helped
me get through and know that I still have people
outside my family who cared about me and wanted me
to be Okay. I know people in abusive situations can
be hard to deal with, but please encourage your listeners
(09:51):
to not give up on their friends. Okay. Well, I
have an email here from Laura and it is on
our our episode on mail order Brides, and she said,
this podcast really piqued my interest because I know a
woman who was a male order bride. She came here
from Russia with her sons four years ago to marry
a man who lives down the street for me, My
(10:11):
brother befriended her younger son, which is how I know
this story. What happened was that probably within two years
she had divorced the farmers she had married, and she
had gotten the house which had originally been his. She
then went to college, got her degree, and was teaching
a course at the local community college and working at
an elementary school. She now has a rich boyfriend and
was moving into a nice condo in an even nicer area.
(10:34):
I know not all cases work out like this, but
she pretty much played the guy who quote unquote bought
her and definitely did not end up with the short
end of the stick. Interesting male Order bride anecdote. Interesting
one more male order bride ancdel This is from Tricia,
who writes my great grandmother was a male Order bride.
At the turn of the last century. Her sister and
brother in law had immigrated from Denmark to western North Dakota,
(10:56):
where they settled. Some years later, a letter ride from
her brother in law asking for a bride, as the
sister had become very ill and he needed help with
the children and homestead. My great grandmother left Denmark for
North Dakota to care for her sister and nieces and nephews,
with the expectation of marrying her brother in law. But
she didn't really know upon her sister's passing. My grandfather
was her firstborn. The practicalities of homestead life required strong women.
(11:19):
No man could manage without a partner, and they knew
it as a small child. I knew my great grandmother,
and she said that love and romance grew out of
mutual respect. The needs and expectations of that time and
place large largely do not exist today. Importantly, I doubt
that a man seeking email or a breach date does
so from the real need for a partner. Interesting, very interesting.
(11:39):
So again the email addresses mom. Stuff at how stuff
works dot com. During the week. Kristen and I have
a blog that we update. It's called how to stuff
and it, along with the article should I bank my
baby's cord blood, is located at how stuff works dot com.
For moral this and thousands of other topics is at
(12:00):
how staff works dot com. Want more house staff works,
check out our blogs on the house stuff works dot
com home page. Brought to you by the reinvented two
thousand twelve Camray. It's ready, Are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff mom never told you?
From House top works dot com. Hey there, and welcome
to the podcast. I'm Kristin, I'm Molly Now, Molly, you
(00:21):
do remember, I hope. We did a episode recently on
placenta phag How can I forget that one? Yes, basically
the idea of eating your placenta after you give birth
for superstinct, for super strength, and to ward off postpartum depression.
You guys can, if you haven't heard it, give it
(00:42):
a listen. But after that episode, we got in a
few listener emails about cord blood, which is a lot
of umbilical cord blood comes from it's actually housed in
the placenta, And these mothers have written in saying, hey,
you didn't talk about cord blood. It's really important for
you to possibly save that that blood and bank it. Yeah,
(01:06):
because it has some pretty impressive properties. And when you
guys talk, we listen. And thus today's episode is should
you bank your baby's umbilical cord blood? Yes, because cord
blood is a source of a specific type of blood
forming stem cell and can possibly cure a host of diseases,
especially leukemia and an lymphoma, and cord blood derivative embryonic
(01:31):
like stem cells are similar to embryonic stem cells, but
far less controversial. Well, because you're using something that would
have been thrown away anyway. Yeah, I mean, like the
placentic can be a waste product at birth unless you
think ahead and you're like, hey, doc, midwife, doula, whoever's
down there, save that, save that cord, save that cord blood,
(01:52):
because cord cord blood is one of three sources for
blood forming cells that can reconstitute someone's immune stem weakened
immune system, and the other two sources are bone marrow
and peripheral or circulating blood. But we should probably clarify
that they are not just basic fetal stem cells, Like
they're not going to grow you a new kidney. If
you need one, it's it's it's a blood forming cell, yes,
(02:16):
just to clarify, all right, So you have to decide
if you're going to bank it before delivery, because you
only have about fifteen minutes after the baby is born
to get the collection of blood. What they'll do is
they will clamp and cut the umbilical cord and then
collect the blood um and if you don't do that
within fifteen minutes, the cord will essentially clamp itself off
from the exposure to air, and that blood is gone.
(02:38):
And it's it's very easy, completely harmless to mother and babe.
They will either basically attach a bag so that the
bag fills up with the blood or they will in
sort of syringe and draw the blood out, just like
they would draw blood from your vein. Yeah, and then
once it is collected, the cord blood will be frozen
in liquid nitrogen to preserve it. And you can either
(03:00):
store the cord blood in a public cord blood bank
or a private chord blood bank. And this is where
things get kind of controversial. Yeah, if you decide to
put it into a private bank, uh, you're gonna have
to pay for it. Not surprisingly, You're gonna have to
pay usually an initial fee of up to two thousand
dollars and then an annual storage fee which might be
(03:21):
around hundred bucks a year. And some people think that
this is wrong because these banks are making money off
of cord blood, which if you donated it to a
public cord blood bank, it could go to anybody who
was in need of it. So why would you want
it to be in a private bank. You wanted to
be in a private bank if you yourself thought you
(03:42):
were going to use it. Basically, by putting it in
the private bank, it's for you and no one else
can have it. Yeah. Because, Um, if you need, for instance,
a autologousts uh CD stem cell transplant, basically, if you
need your own cells too, if you come down with
some kind of disease or condition, Uh, then you're gonna
(04:04):
you can go to your private bank and you've got
your cord blood stored there and no search for a match.
It's just done. Because if you if you watch a
lot of medical shows like I do, it seems like
people are always looking for that match. In fact, there
are some shows where the woman will have a baby
to get that cord blood to save another child. But
the controversy comes because TV, like it does for many things, UH,
(04:30):
makes it look like the situation is far more common
than it actually is. Because the likelihood that you would
need your own cells, according to US study in the
journal Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, is only about
one and four hundred and thirty five. Yeah, and UM,
I think we should also point out that these cord
blood stem cells have a more potential for wider use because,
(04:53):
as opposed to stem cells taken from adult bone marrow,
a perfect match between the donor and the recipient isn't necessary.
But other studies put it those statistics that anywhere from
one in two thousand to one in two thousand, depending
on whether your family has a history of a disease
that's even treatable by cbe stem cells. Because, for instance,
(05:14):
some parents mistakenly believe that their child could be treated
with his or her own cord blood if they contract
leukemia later on, but leukemic cells are present at birth,
so the cord blood would therefore be tainted. Right And
even if you've got a sibling who's got cord blood banked,
there's only a twenty chance of these cells between siblings
(05:34):
being a match. So and in some cases the cord
blood isn't even stored because it doesn't contain enough stem cells.
Like there's some argument that um, if you are trying
to get the cored blood for an adult, there's not
even gonna be enough stem cells in there to make
a difference. You'd have to use it on a very
small person, which gives you a small wind of time
to use it. So really, when we were researching this,
(05:56):
the private cord blood bank doesn't seem like the best deal. Yeah,
in groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics do advise
parents to donate their baby's cord blood to public banks because,
unlike say stem cells that are taken from adult bone marrow,
with CD stem cells, you don't need a perfect genetic
(06:16):
match between the donor and the recipient in order for
the transplant to take. And this is very important Molly
and I learned for particularly minority patients who need the transplants.
So to clarify when we're talking about these minority chord
blood donations, we're talking about public cord blood banks now.
(06:37):
And if there's a public cord blood bank near you,
it will pay for the collection kit, for the processing,
the blood, the storage. It's completely for you, the parents,
but everyone can use it. It's not just saved for you.
It's open to anyone. And the National Marrow Donor Program
really advocates public cord blood banking, particularly to help out
(06:58):
minority patients, because cord blood doesn't need that as close
of a genetic match as bone marrow stem cells, and
more than minority patients who receive a transplant now will
use cord blood as opposed to only five to fiftent
of minority patients who could use bone marrow transplants. So
(07:19):
this is actually going a long way to to serve
these these minority patients for curing things like leukemia and lymphoma. Now,
those are the two conditions that if you have a
family history of them, if you have a family history
of some blood related disease, then those are really the
only conditions where people say you might want to do
private cord blood banking. Other than that, both that organization
(07:42):
and the American Association of Pediatrics recommends public help out,
everyone help out everybody. So to answer our questions, should
you bank your baby's cord blood, I say yes publicly, publicly.
Don't let those private banks talk you into a bad deal.
Don't be selfish with that cord blood. People save some
lives unless you're at risk for certain conditions. Okay, So
(08:04):
thanks to all the listeners who let us know about
core blood banking. It was very interested interesting to um
look into it a little bit more, UM and it
just goes to show that if you email us you
never know what will happen. We may dedicate an entire
episode to it, just to you. Just do your listeners,
all right, So let's do a few listener mails now,
people who have emailed us at mom Stuff at how
(08:25):
Stuff works dot com. I'm going to start from one
that is not signed, and it's from an old episode,
but I think it's always good to remind our listeners
of this kind of stuff. It's about our dating violence episode. Um.
And the listener writes that she was in a bad
situation that lasted for two years. Um. She did pull
(08:47):
back from her friends more and more um. And at
first her friends were like, Oh, it's the bubble, It's
the new romance bubble. But then she writes, my friends
knew this guy wasn't good for me, especially when I
quit my favorite job because he aways wanted to spend
more time together. I know I pushed my friends away,
but they were still always there for me. My rugby
team even encouraged me to crash at their places whenever
I needed to. I honestly don't think I would have
(09:09):
had the strength to move back with my parents and
and things with a boyfriend if I hadn't had a
great support system, I could still be in that city
with him doing god knows what, having forgotten all about myself.
Which brings me to my advice to listeners who suspect
friends or acquaintances of being an abusive situation. Please don't
give up on your friends. They know deep inside that
they need to leave their significant other, and they still
(09:30):
need friends outside of his his circle, but there's this
overwhelming feeling of despairing, hopelessness that surrounds them. A text
or call from time to time, and an invitation to
go out, sleepovers, etcetera. Any and all of these helped
me get through and know that I still have people
outside my family who cared about me and wanted me
to be Okay. I know people in abusive situations can
be hard to deal with, but please encourage your listeners
(09:51):
to not give up on their friends. Okay. Well, I
have an email here from Laura and it is on
our our episode on mail order Brides, and she said,
this podcast really piqued my interest because I know a
woman who was a male order bride. She came here
from Russia with her sons four years ago to marry
a man who lives down the street for me, My
(10:11):
brother befriended her younger son, which is how I know
this story. What happened was that probably within two years
she had divorced the farmers she had married, and she
had gotten the house which had originally been his. She
then went to college, got her degree, and was teaching
a course at the local community college and working at
an elementary school. She now has a rich boyfriend and
was moving into a nice condo in an even nicer area.
(10:34):
I know not all cases work out like this, but
she pretty much played the guy who quote unquote bought
her and definitely did not end up with the short
end of the stick. Interesting male Order bride anecdote. Interesting
one more male order bride ancdel This is from Tricia,
who writes my great grandmother was a male Order bride.
At the turn of the last century. Her sister and
brother in law had immigrated from Denmark to western North Dakota,
(10:56):
where they settled. Some years later, a letter ride from
her brother in law asking for a bride, as the
sister had become very ill and he needed help with
the children and homestead. My great grandmother left Denmark for
North Dakota to care for her sister and nieces and nephews,
with the expectation of marrying her brother in law. But
she didn't really know upon her sister's passing. My grandfather
was her firstborn. The practicalities of homestead life required strong women.
(11:19):
No man could manage without a partner, and they knew
it as a small child. I knew my great grandmother,
and she said that love and romance grew out of
mutual respect. The needs and expectations of that time and
place large largely do not exist today. Importantly, I doubt
that a man seeking email or a breach date does
so from the real need for a partner. Interesting, very interesting.
(11:39):
So again the email addresses mom. Stuff at how stuff
works dot com. During the week. Kristen and I have
a blog that we update. It's called how to stuff
and it, along with the article should I bank my
baby's cord blood, is located at how stuff works dot com.
For moral this and thousands of other topics is at
(12:00):
how staff works dot com. Want more house staff works,
check out our blogs on the house stuff works dot
com home page. Brought to you by the reinvented two
thousand twelve Camray. It's ready, Are you
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