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When I was pregnant with my first child, I noticed private (family) cord blood banking ads at every doctor’s office and web page I visited. My first inclination was to open my wallet and plead with them to save my child’s life from horrible diseases I would almost have preferred never to learn about. But the upfront expenses to bank my child’s cord blood would have exceeded the combined cost of the stroller, crib, changing table and nursing chair on my shopping list. Could cord blood banking possibly be that valuable?

There is no dispute about the lifesaving value of cord blood stem cells for treating blood cancers such as childhood leukemia. The United States Department of Health and Human Services notes the need for more cord blood donations, and the national Be the Match registry matches donated cord blood to patients in need. More than 10,000 people are waiting for a match, and the Be the Match Blog helps put faces and names on some of them.

But the value of banking cord blood for private use is a different question. There are 80-something diseases that cord blood is known to treat, but most of them cannot be treated with the patient’s own cord blood. That suggests the cord blood is generally useful only for a sibling, and even then, there is only a 25 percent chance that siblings match. Also, because babies are small, the cord blood collected is usually not enough for an adult transplant. These facts weren’t obvious in the ads I saw, and I am glad I read the fine print.

With my first pregnancy, I donated my son’s cord blood to the Carolinas Cord Blood Bank because its free mail-in kit program enables almost anyone, anywhere to donate. That was three years ago. When I found out I was pregnant last year, I assumed I would donate my child’s cord blood again. Once I discovered I was carrying twins, however, I learned that I wasn’t eligible to donate. The medical field considered me “of advanced maternal age,” which, combined with carrying twins, elevated the risk for premature delivery. In turn, that made my girls 10 times more likely to develop cerebral palsy, for which cord blood therapy is currently in Stage 2 clinical trials. Suddenly, I had to re-evaluate private cord blood banking.

Depending on whom you believe, the probability of having a stem cell transplant ranges from the ludicrously improbable to the disturbingly plausible (one in 217 over a lifetime). However, these statistics do not take into account the research underway to test cord blood stem cells in the treatment of brain injuries, diabetes, heart disease and more. Using cord blood to treat cerebral palsy has been especially promising given positive test results from a South Korean clinical trial and some high-profile success stories from a long-running study at Duke University. If your family ever did need a stem cell transplant, the odds of finding a donor from Be the Match vary by race, with mixed-race patients having the hardest time finding a match. In any case, parents should know that the chance of finding a match from the public registry is higher than matching a sibling.

Given cord blood’s potential, I was surprised to learn that 95 percent is thrown out as medical waste. Sadly, I joined the 95 percent club when the twins were born; I simply could not afford private banking. Although the cost of privately banking cord blood is an important factor to consider, Frances Verter, founder of the Parent’s Guide to Cord Blood, recommends that one “not pick a family cord blood bank primarily by price. It is one thing to decide not to privately bank because you feel it is not worthwhile or you can’t afford it. But if you are going to do it, then make sure you have selected a high-quality family cord blood bank.”

Regardless of my family’s choice, private cord blood banking could make sense for others in certain circumstances.

•You have a high-risk family medical history of disease(s) currently treatable by cord blood.

•You are optimistic about the clinical trials for cord blood therapies.

•A sibling has a medical condition treatable with cord blood.

•You are at high risk for a premature delivery.

•You are a mixed-race couple.

•You are optimistic about future scientific breakthroughs.

•Private banking does not stretch your budget.

•You are disqualified from public donation.

Of course, with the rapidly evolving medical landscape, these situations can only be expected to change. Since advancements in cord blood for personal use could upend people’s willingness to donate, some in the field such as Dr. Joanne Kurtzberg, director of the Carolinas Cord Blood Bank and a professor at Duke, support a hybrid public-private partnership model that could make the current debate between public versus private banking a thing of the past — a good thing for adults of the future who would benefit from the best of both worlds.