Thermalgal’s Temperate Mumblings

Cord Blood Banking…

November 15, 2007 on 12:10 pm | In Uncategorized | 3 Comments

I usually try and stay away from “hot topics” mostly because I hate politics and I try to be happy and debates don’t make me happy. But I just ready an article on Fox News that annoyed me. The quick summary is that the AMA wants doctors to encourage mothers wishing to donate cord blood to give to public banks. That is a great idea, so why am I annoyed?

Well, when I was given the to donate or not to donate form by my OB, I thought long and hard about it and did lots of research. And the conclusion I came to… I want to save the cord blood but since nothing in either of our family’s medical histories give us any reason to do private banking, I want to donate to a public bank. So at my next appointment I talked to the nurse. And the answer I got… my hospital isn’t involved with any of the public cord blood banks and if I wanted to save the cord blood my only option was private. Not only that, but I was told that it costs a lot to process the public cord blood and they have more than they can process right now.

So, did the AMA know the realities of trying to donate to public banks when they voted for the new ethical guideline?

It reminds me of the take stairs instead of elevator campaign and when I went to visit a friend at the same hospital as mentioned above and asked where the stairs were, I was told that there were no stairs (which is impossible because of the whole fire thing).

<edited to add>A new article just popped up on my Bloglines from Fox News Health… Some Australian women are breastfeeding their children until they are 7-years-old, a new study has found… Can you say ewww…