There are a lot of misconceptions about cord blood storage and donation because it’s still a new technology and many people are apprehensive to take part. Unfortunately, it’s these common misconceptions that allow people the pass up the opportunity to preserve this once in a lifetime blood and rich supply of stem cells within. Hopefully, as more and more success is had with using umbilical blood to save lives these misconceptions will be tossed out, but today they still exist.
You shouldn’t bother storing stem cells because they’ll contain any disease your child might develop.
Many parents believe that they shouldn’t bother storing stem cells because if their child develops a disease their stem cells will just reproduce the disease. This is a false belief, researchers have found and strongly believe that even diseases diagnosed in the first 12 months of life can be helped and even cured by stem cells. And, one’s own stem cells are always the preferred transplantation method as they are less likely to be rejected by the body. Stem cells taken from your child’s body are the best stem cells that could be used, and you cannot predict whether or not a disease will be diagnosed.
We probably won’t ever need the stem cells, so why bother storing them?
There is a misconception that your child will never need the stem cells, so you shouldn’t bother spending the time and expense to store the cord blood. While it’s true that only one in 2,700 children ever uses their own cord blood before the age of 21, statistics say that the average is one in every 1,400 family members will use the privately stored blood. Either way, your child or family member could be that one. And, as cord blood and stem cell research continue, it’s likely that cord blood will be used more and more. In the future we could see stem cells used to cure diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and much more. Storing the cord blood is preparing for the future, and that is important.
We don’t have a family history of cancer, so we don’t need to store cord blood.
This is a justification than many families make, yet a history of cancer can be started with your baby’s generation. In fact, one in 630 children will be diagnosed with cancer before they are 15. That gives your child a fairly high chance of developing cancer, so why not be preventative instead of sitting back and waiting for it to happen? Cord blood storage doesn’t have to be done because you think something bad is going to happen, it should be done because you want to have a plan in the rare even that it does happen.
There are a lot of misconceptions about cord blood storage. Many people dismiss the idea because they don’t think that disease and illness applies to them, their family, or their baby. No one plans for illness or disease, so why not plan ahead, so you have some security if things that you do not plan for actually become reality?
