July is Cord Blood Awareness month. Dr. Duncan Burkholder, an OB-GYN with Grace Clinic, said there is often confusion surrounding cord blood.
“Because the patients are starting to get a lot of direct mail, direct advertising that is coming directly to them and they are therefore confused about it so I try to break it down to the basics,” said Dr. Burkholder. “Babies have cells floating around in their blood called stem cells and these stem cells have the ability to cure many diseases and we’ve known that for many, many years, but in 1988 I believe they were able to take cord blood and cure some diseases with it and the first diseases that were cured were leukemia and lymphoma and that’s a pretty great thing so indeed cord blood, the stem cells in the cord blood can cure many diseases but it’s not a cure all.”
But he said it can be used for other family members.
“Can be used for siblings so if you save the first baby’s cord blood, the second or third baby needs it, you can use the cord blood on the siblings. It’s also been shown to be able to be used for other family members so the reason why – its almost like a 2 for one or 3, for one insurance policy the benefit of sharing the risk so I think thats helpful,” said Dr. Burkholder.
The downside, he said, it can be expensive.
“To do it privately the cost is about 14-15 hundred dollars to set up a private account, and then a hundred dollars a year there after to store it.”
