I was surfing around YouTube and was amazed with the number of videos related to cord blood banking.  One that I found especially valuable was a YouTube video from Suze Orman’s show on CNBC.  She does a segment called “Can You Afford It.”  A viewer called in to see if she could afford cord blood banking. I am posting the video here.  Suze says it so much better than I ever could.

The biggest stumbling block to cord blood banking is the expense.  While M.A.Z.E. is less expensive than other cord blood banks, it is a medical procedure so it is still expensive.

M.A.Z.E. offers parents an opportunity to make cord blood more affordable.  Most expectant parents are familiar with baby gift registries.  They often register for gifts when expecting a baby.

Registries help parents to receive the gifts they need while offering ideas for well-meaning friends and relatives.  Did you know that M.A.Z.E. Cord Blood Laboratories offers a gift registry.  That’s right, you can register for cord blood banking along with your onesies, crib sheets and bouncers.

Registering for M.A.Z.E. Cord Blood Laboratories gift registry is easy.  Once you have registered to bank your cord blood, you can register for the gift registry online.  M.A.Z.E. will send an email invitation to any friends and family you would like to include.  M.A.Z.E. will handle all the details and will keep you posted on who contributes to your registry.

Once your baby is born, your registry closes.  M.A.Z.E. will bill you for any remaining balance.  You are ready to enjoy your baby, confident in the fact that the cord blood is available if you need it.

A recent article from the National Post in Canada provides a great overview of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), stem cells that appear to provide extensive opportunity for healing.  Scientists are exploring the potential of MSCs, but have had difficulty with finding them since they were only available through bone marrow or fat from liposuction.

The MSCs are very easy to work with and avoid many of the negatives associated with embryonic stem cells.  With the discovery of these stem cells’ availability in cord blood, scientists may be able to develop a nearly unlimited source for experimentation and eventually treatment of a variety of different diseases.

Read about available cord blood treatments.

Last month, MinnPost ran an opinion piece discussing cord blood donation and the difficulties with donating cord blood in different states.

According to the article, there are only 22 states that offer public cord blood banking options. These options are only available through certain hospitals.

This is why it is sometimes difficult to find a match in the public cord blood banks, especially for minority patients.

As we all know by now, there’s a movie out, My Sister’s Keeper, that dramatizes the experience of a family trying to save a child with Franconi anemia by having a child whose stem cells matched and were successfully transplanted into the sick child.  Though the movie has been criticized by its variance from reality, and its studious avoidance of topics such as political roadblocks, the Times writer Lisa Belkin, was certainly touched by the decisions parents need to make – financial and emotional – to create a world worthy of their wonderful children.  Read Ms. Belkin’s own words for a picture of the conflicts and courage sometimes required to navigate parenthood from the very beginning.

On our cord blood banking blog, we want parents-to-be to have the whole story, not just information that serves our lab.  Here is a Web site with information about donating cord blood.

The site reports that about “20% of patients that need a transplant to replace their blood-forming cells receive cord blood that was donated to a public cord blood bank.”

A scientist at the Loyola University Health System, last month, received a grant from the Amgen Foundation.

Dr. Aileen Go is researching the use of cord blood as a treatment for leukemia and lymphoma patients who are 55-75. Dr. Go is exploring the expansion of cord blood stem cells to allow a single cord blood sample to treat an older adult. In the past, older adults have required the combination of multiple cord blood samples to provide enough stem cells for treatment.

This type of research is very valuable for families who have banked their cord blood. Since there doesn’t appear to be any “expiration date” on cord blood, the ability to expand the stem cells may eventually allow cord blood to be used multiple times throughout the child’s life.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offers expectant parents a great overview of different options of what to do with their cord blood.

Cord blood is such a valuable resource and most of it ends up as medical waste. If you are expecting a baby, make sure you know about your options.