Cord Blood Banking

JULY 22ND 2010 UPDATE:
Have to call out that this company has sinced moved all operations to Las Vegas. I am still with the company but I am disappointed that they are no longer local!

My husband and I have decided to bank our cord blood. Not only do we think it is important but his little brother died at age two of leukemia so it really was never a question of if we were going to do it. Selecting the right one proved to be a harder decision and I found it really overwhelming. Because of this I thought I would share how I chose a company.

At first I thought I would do it by price, reputation and years in business. The prices all seemed to be in the same range with a start up cost of around $2,000 and then approx. $125-$150 a year for storage. Please note that you can use the cord blood you bank for one child for your other children. We all get swamped with e-mails and mailers from ViaCord so I knew about that one. CRB is also a popular one that I started to see a lot. But I quickly caught on that cord blood banking is apart of the pharmaceutical industry. Which explains why we get so many mailers from ViaCord. Pharma companies have tons of money to throw at advertising making their company look like the most popular choice. So I really wanted to get to the bottom of who is the best company. One day my research led me to a blog where parents and former employees and current employees of ViaCord and CBR were ranting about both companies. The blog was filled with stories of each company losing the cord blood in transit from the hospital to the banking facility. Some of the damages were blamed on the fact that the companies farm out the pick up of the cord blood at the hospital to a third party courier service. Others shared their stories of how their cord blood was damaged or lost once it was put on the plane after the courier picked it up. One couple was even told that the plane ran over their cord blood package. I mean think about it. How many of us pack back up "stuff" in our carry-ons because we know the potential of our bags being lost by the airline.

Okay so now I was even more overwhelmed but that blog ended up being the best information I found. I walked away knowing what I wanted in a cord blood banking company:
#1 A Local Company: This will prevent the package from having to get on a plane to reach the cord blood banking location.
#2 A Company with its own Couriers: This would place more responsibility on the cord blood banking company.

Majority of cord blood banking companies such as ViaCord and CBR are in California so that ruled them out. A quick Google search let me to CORCEL (www.corcell.com) which is headquartered in Philadelphia. I go in contact with Bruce Ditnes and armed with my information and questions I grilled him about CORCELL. My #1 priority of the blood being banked locally and not having to get on a plane was satisfied as the company banks its blood in Hackensack, NJ. My #2 goal of finding a company that did not use a third party courier would not happen. Bruce informed me that because this is a national industry every cord blood banking company uses a third party courier. I did check that CORCELL did not use the same service courier service name Quick, that was mentioned over and over again on that blog. It looked like I would have to give in on this one.

Also as a side note Bruce informed me that if you, your spouse or the baby's grandparents have Independence Blue Cross or are connected with one of their affiliates you will receive a discounted rate from CORCELL.


In the end I decided to go with CORCELL. I am due in the middle of July and so far I have been very satisfied with the service I have received from CORCELL. Once I sent in my information I was contacted within a couple days confirming where my cord blood package should be sent and when I would like it sent. Since I technically could deliver any day I had them mail it that Friday and I received it that Monday. It is important that you do your own research and figure out based on the information you find what company best fits your needs and concerns. If you are interested in CORCELL visit their site www.corcell.com and contact Bruce Ditnes with your questions: bditnes@corcell.com. He can e-mail you a start up packet that explain everything to help you make your decision.