Dilemma: Public vs Private Cord Blood Banking

Hi everyone
I guess each parent will go through this decision phase. I've read up quite a fair bit and also attended free parenting seminars on the benefits of cord blood banking.

What is cord blood banking?
Cord blood banking involves collecting blood left in your newborn's umbilical cord and placenta and storing it for future medical use. Cord blood contains potentially lifesaving cells called stem cells. source from http://www.babycenter.com/0_cord-blood-banking-what-it-is-why-consider-it_1362261.bc#articlesection1

There are 3 options which you can take:
1) Donate your cord blood to public bank ie Singapore Cord Blood Bank

2) Store your cord blood privately. There are 3 companies in Singapore offering this service.

a) Cordlife
Cordlife's differentiation is that there is no real need to store your baby's cord blood in different locations. Splitting the cord blood unit into multiple bags increases the risk of contamination and the number of stem cells harvested from umbilical blood is limited.




Price Plan:

Upfront Initial Payment (one time)	Annual Payment (age 1 to 20)	Age 21
$1,950	$250	FREE

Cordlife's marketing seem to be more aggressive as seen in their participation in baby fairs where they are usually sponsor/ have a big booth presence. They also have referral scheme where they give out Robinson vouchers and $100 voucher off their price plan.

b) Stemcord
Stemcord’s founders are renowned and experienced practising medical oncologists, hematologists and physicians with vast contributions in bone marrow and peripheral stem cell transplantation programmes in Singapore.

At StemCord, cord blood is collected with bag method and they store the cord blood sample in multiple cryo units.

Unlike Cordlife, Stemcord has flexible storage plan.

Standard Payment Plans (w/o) GST	Annual Plan	6-Year Plan	11-Year Plan	21-Year Plan
One-Time Enrolment Fee	$1950	$1950	$1950	$1950
1st Year Storage Fee	INCLUSIVE	INCLUSIVE	INCLUSIVE	INCLUSIVE
2nd & Subsequent Year Fees	$275 ($275/year)**	$1250 ($250 x 5)	$2375 ($237.50 x 10)	$4500 ($225 x 20)
Total Payable*	$1950	$3200	$4325	$6450

c) Cryoviva

3) Do nothing. The umbilical cord blood after the birth of the baby will be discarded after the baby’s birth. This is clearly not a good option.

 
After much consideration, I have decided to donate #bumptham cord blood for the following reasons:
1) It can help save lives for those in need and reaps good karma for #bumptham.

2) I was hesitant at first as I was having a lot of what-if deliberations eg what if my baby/ family members need the cord blood eg autism which is only detected at later stages. However, I believe in the law of attraction, I only want to think of the positive things that can happen ie healthy and happy family. :)

3) Even though private cord blood banking can be paid by CDA account, I wanted to put the money to better use eg send #bumptham to better premium schools.

4) I find the public bank procedures quite rigorous eg they will collect blood sample from the mother before delivery takes place used for evaluation of infectious diseases. This procedure is necessary to ensure that all cord blood units collected are free of all infectious diseases and safe for transplant.

I hope this article will be useful to all first time parents facing the same dilemma as me.

Love,
Sherlyn