Cord Blood Banking - Should You Spend the Money?

Storage of baby's umbilical cord blood in a private cord blood bank for family's own personal use in the future is a choice made by both parents and is typically very costly. Currently, it costs S$6,000 on average for storage up to age 21 of the baby. Some private banks also offer banking of the cord lining. If parents want to take both up as a form of "insurance" for the child or a sibling, you are looking at expenses of around S$12,000. Due to the costs involved, private cord blood banking is not financially feasible for many families.

In Singapore, we have 3 private banks, namely:
1. Cordlife - processed and stored over 45,000 cord blood units as of 21 Mar 2014 and 13 cases of successful release of cord blood units (over 250 including itsw associates)
2. Stemcord - processed and stored more than 35,000 cord blood units and 12 cases of successful release of cord blood units
3. Cryoviva - newly established in 2013.

Public banks accept donations to be used for anyone in need. The percentage of public bank donations discarded as medical waste is estimated to be between 60 to 80%. The registries impose very stringent criteria such as taking blood volume and cell count into account before storage, and only samples that meets international public cord blood banking guidelines can be stored.

In Singapore, we have the Singapore Cord Blood Bank (SCCB). Since inception in 2005, the SCCB has facilitated 162 transplants, both locally and internationally. As of 31 July 2013, it has a cord blood inventory of over 9,000 cord blood units available for Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplants (HSCT).

Research has shown that there is an extremely low probability that the donor should ever need or benefit from his/her own cord blood unit as it may already carry the genetic abnormality that led to the blood disorder or immune system failure. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics strongly supports public over private cord blood banking because there is "no data to support the benefits of private cord blood banking at the current time".

Hence, choosing to bank your child's cord blood is an insurance against two highly improbable scenarios of either another family member needs the cord blood or the probability of new uses for cord blood in regenerative medicine or cell therapy.

Besides the research that I did online, I also consulted my obstetrician and a haematologist friend of my significant other who gave the same answer. "Donate it to a public cord blood bank." Hence, the decision was made and the money saved will go into baby's education fund instead.

Which one will you choose?