What types of banks store cord blood?
There are 2 types of cord blood banks: public and family. Public cord blood banks • Public banks store donated cord blood for potential use by transplant patients. • The donated cord blood is listed on a registry by its tissue type, and the donor remains anonymous. • At least half the donations received by public banks are too small to qualify for long-term storage, and are used for research or discarded (ref: BeTheMatch). • Public banks accept cord blood donations for free, but charge the patient’s insurance about $30,000 to release a cord blood transplant (ref: BeTheMatch). • Public cord blood banks may be supported by a variety of economic models; some are non-profit (ex: New Jersey Cord Blood Bank) and some are for-profit (ex: StemCyte). • There are, as of October 2009, about 200 locations in the United States where a parent can donate cord blood. They are all at large hospitals that deliver thousands of babies per year. • There are a couple of public banks, Cryobanks International
Related Questions
- Are there different ways that private cord blood banks process and store the umbilical cord blood stem cells? Does the procedure really make a difference?
- Id like to use a private bank to store my childs cord blood, but I can afford the cost or the payments. What are my options?
- Why families choose to collect and store their baby’s cord blood?
