Introduction
Cord blood banking is one of the safest and most painless processes that assist in collecting, processing, and storing a newborn’s umbilical cord stem cells. This cord blood is rich in stem cells. Stem cells have immense healing potential. Moreover, the collection process of these cells causes no risk or harm to the baby or mother. Furthermore, umbilical cord blood stem cells are more pristine than adults. This is due to their younger age and less exposure to illness or environmental factors. Therefore, these cells serve well for therapy in hospitals worldwide. The treatments also include stem cell transplants and emerging therapies in regenerative medicine. Cord blood banking involves the entire process from collection to storage for future medical purposes. Finally, physicians and researchers get these stem cells for treatment or further study.
However, parents can choose between public or private storage. Public banks save the largest donations listed on a registry for medical doctors. On the other hand, private banks charge you to store the cord blood as biological insurance. It helps the baby and family members in the future. Therefore, parents need to pay for the family storage as a form of biological insurance.
Why Choose A Private Cord Blood Bank?
When it comes to preserving stem cells, private cord blood banking offers several benefits.
Firstly, it guarantees a perfect genetic match for your baby. Therefore, you can use the stem cells for various purposes that are exclusively for your family.
These purposes include treating diseases or enrolling your child in clinical trials.
Moreover, these stem cells often partially match other family members. Therefore, it increases their utility in the event of a medical emergency.
However, it’s important to note that private cord blood banking comes at a cost.
You’ll need to pay for three functions:
- Collection during birth.
- Processing of the cord blood.
- Annual storage of the stem cells.
On the bright side, most private banks for cord blood offer guarantees. Therefore, should your child’s stem cells fail to engraft, you can get back a hefty amount of your deposit.
If you require a matching donor from a public cord blood bank in such instances, the private bank will take care of the transfer-related expenses.
Comparing Private Cord Blood Banks
In this article, we shall compare the two most popular private cord blood banks and help you understand their different plans and prices:
Alphacord
AlphaCord offers affordable stem cell banking options for newborns, including annual and 20-year prepaid plans. These plans include the following functions:
- Complete collection kit.
- Shipping.
- World-class processing.
- Quality testing.
Here are the different plans offered by the cord blood bank:
- Cord Blood Only plan contains hematopoietic stem cells with 80+ uses in transplant medicine. You can also use it to cure different types of cancer and blood disorders. The 12-month payment plan costs $68/mo, including first-year storage fees.
- Cord Blood & Cord Tissue plan contains epithelial, mesenchymal, and endothelial stem cells, with additional treatment possibilities in regenerative medicine.
- The Cord Blood, Cord Tissue & Placenta plan includes all the stem cells needed to protect your family.
For nearly twenty years, AlphaCord has collaborated with numerous families. It helped them safeguard their infant’s valuable stem cells by means of cord blood and tissue banking.
Lastly, Cells4Life’s CellsPlus technology, powered by TotiCyte, enhances cord blood processing. It provides up to 3x more stem cells at the therapy point. This service is available as a standalone extra or standard in their Platinum and Ultimate packages.
Cells4Life
Prices at Cells4LifePrivate cord blood bank start at £550 upfront and a small annual fee. Moreover, it allows you to spread the payment over 12 months. Therefore, it makes the process more affordable.
At Cells4Life, you can find a range of cord blood banking packages:
- Silver Package: cord blood only.
- Gold Package: cord blood and cord tissue.
- Platinum Package: cord blood, tissue, CellsPlus, multiple samples, and dual locations.
- Ultimate Package: cord blood, tissue, CellsPlus, placental cells and amnion, multiple samples, dual locations, and BabyInsight.
Each package has an Access Plan equivalent to make it more affordable for everyone to store.
Cells4Life allows the storage of cord blood, tissue, amnion, and placental cells in multiple samples across two locations.
Each type contains powerful cells with different applications, some more effective than others. By storing all three types, the greatest range of stem cells and treatments can be accessible.
This post was published on April 1, 2024 7:12 pm