8 ms·

My wife is 33 weeks pregnant with our first. We plan to donate our baby’s cord blood to research. Cool to think it could help researchers develop treatments lik

by jorpal 5y ago

My wife is 33 weeks pregnant with our first. We plan to donate our baby’s cord blood to research. Cool to think it could help researchers develop treatments like this in some small way!

Gollapalli 5y ago
So, ignorant question here, but isn't the cord blood supposed to go into the baby?
- Brotkrumen 5y ago
  According to the small pamphlet I got, there's a small benefit to the baby's immune system if the cord isn't cut immediately and some of the blood in there is allowed to pump into the baby.
JacobThreeThree 5y ago
Did you consider freezing for future use?
- The_rationalist 5y ago
- jorpal 5y ago
  I know some people keep the cord blood in a private bank. In my opinion it only makes sense if you have family history of or current relative with a disease that could be treated with it. Since the hospital we are using (Stanford LPCH) has a research program that will come collect it with no extra steps on our side, it seemed like a good choice.
  - inglor_cz 5y ago
    Cord blood is a good source of "your own" stem cells. We do not know what is going to be possible with such cells 20 or 30 years from now; possibly unimaginable things. I would save them if I had a child. Just in case.
    - musha68k 5y ago
      Do you happen to know what's the maximum storage time? I remember reading that it was about 10 years only?
      - yread 5y ago
        we did it. It depends on the freezer. at -80C they say it's for a lifetime with a caveat that the technology is only 23 years old so none can prove it's for a lifetime, yet
    - londons_explore 5y ago
      If few other people save it, then nobody will develop treatments using it, since a treatment is only developed if it makes financial sense, and if <1% of potential patients for a treatment have cord blood banked, then a treatment that requires their personal cord blood will never be developed.
      - noah_buddy 5y ago
        There are many companies doing this now and many (affluent) parents are saving it. I think your analysis misses the mark, even if there's a niche market, if it's comprised of people willing to spend lots of money, it can make sense as a business.
        omgwtfbyobbq 5y ago
        There are state led efforts to bank cord blood as well b/c of it's usefulness in some medical treatments and research. https://sd25.senate.ca.gov/news/2017-06-26/california-umbilical-cord-blood-collection-program-funded-uc-davis https://sd25.senate.ca.gov/news/2017-06-26/california-umbili... Unfortunately, public donations are only an option in some locations. https://health.ucdavis.edu/cord-blood/locations https://health.ucdavis.edu/cord-blood/locations
    - jorpal 5y ago
      I get that it is very tempting. We all want to do anything that could help our kids. However, there are also an endless number of things people are selling to new parents that prey on that reflex. I truly don’t know the right thing to do here, but the position I mentioned earlier basically follows the recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics: https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/140/5/e20172695/37866/Cord-Blood-Banking-for-Potential-Future https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/140/5/e20172... This was from 2017 and is basically the same as a reference I found from 2007. Has there been any actual changes in the state of the art since it was published?
  - throwawaynay 5y ago
    apparently the founder of Anja Health said that she launched it after her sibling almost drowned and needed it, so maybe it make sense even without a predisposition? If I had a kid and enough disposable income I'd do it without even thinking about it to be honest
    - pkukp9 5y ago
      hello! founder of Anja Health here :) Yes, it makes sense without a predisposition. Things like HIV with the woman cited in the article, cerebral palsy due to a near drowning accident, etc. could all be use cases. Our own team has a sales exec who used stem cells for a knee injury he got in track & field in high school. Another has a grandfather who used it for dementia. BTW, a lot of our clients self identify as having <75k in income. Our pricing is 35-85/mo. for 8 years to cover 20 years of storage. :D so hopefully you don't need to allocate too much disposable income. It's still an investment for sure, but many think it's worth it. Myself included obviously haha
  - speg 5y ago
    Make sure they don’t forget! In the chaos after birth, sometimes these things slip through. I’m not sure what happened when our first was born, but I do remember the folks who came by a bit later to pick up the cord being annoyed that the delivery team didn’t save it.
- smnrchrds 5y ago
  The umbilical cord blood storage industry is under-regulated and untrustworthy, much like another freezing-related industry, cryonics. Both are full of examples of amateurs, bad actors, and mundane issues like bankruptcy resulting in things that were promised to be kept frozen for decades or centuries ending up in waste disposal after 5 years. Like this example from Canada: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/cord-blood-bank-of-canada-owner-claims-samples-destroyed-1.6109959 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/cord-blood-bank-of-ca... Also, from the same article, does anyone has more information on this: > there's a very low probability that someone's own stem cells can be used to treat them, according to Health Canada.
  - andy_ppp 5y ago
    There was a YC startup on here attempting to do this... here we go: https://anjahealth.com https://anjahealth.com
    - smnrchrds 5y ago
      I don't expect much in terms of longevity from any startup.
      - devoutsalsa 5y ago
        “It’s been said that a person dies twice, once when the body dies & once when their name is last spoken. There’s also a third time, when the company storing your frozen corpse can’t pay the power bill.”
- pkukp9 5y ago
  I think freezing for future use is the best way to go. A few reasons: 1) cord blood transplants from related donors have higher survival rates than unrelated donors https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejm199708073370602 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejm199708073370602 2) this woman was lucky that she was able to find a partial match, but many don't. The combination of using a related blood donor + an unrelated cord blood donor was a lucky strike. I think for many very mixed race folks or especially people of color (specifically Black communities), they may not be so lucky 3) the cost of finding a donor can be extremely steep. Some may be covered by insurance, but not all of it will be. My guess is this woman who was cured from HIV is relatively affluent to some degree. Banking cord blood is considered to be for affluent folks, but the difference in cost of banking vs. finding a donor later on is massive
skrbjc 5y ago
It's very healthy for your baby to delay cord clamping as long as possible
- jorpal 5y ago
  Thanks for the tip! At our hospital the standard of care is delayed cord clamping, although it sounds like they wait only a few minutes, not 15+ minutes. It used to be done in ~<1 minute, I guess, so a few minutes is called delayed now. Do you have a good reference recommending to wait “long as possible”?
  - throwntoday 5y ago
    Wait until all the blood has passed through and the cord is white. Baby will likely be a little jaundiced but if you clamp too early they will have low blood levels. Don't let the hospital staff rush you (they will try). Best to let nature run its course IMO. Good luck to you and your partner.
    - sersi 5y ago
      Write a birth plan, make the doctor or hospital staff read it and confirm with them they read it. We had told the doctor we wanted delayed cord clamping (not the habit in hk), he acknowledged it despite warning us about jaundice (he was old fashioned). Then during the actual delivery, he completely forgot about it and both of us were too sleep deprived to force the issue.
      - noveltyaccount 5y ago
        This is why having a doula is so valuable. She had a clear head and advocated for us. I caught the baby and never would have asked. But the doula knew the correct time to remind the doctor.
- adolph 5y ago
  Here is more data on delay in cord clamping. https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/committee-opinion/articles/2020/12/delayed-umbilical-cord-clamping-after-birth https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/committee-op... because the placenta continues to perform gas exchange after delivery, sick and preterm infants are likely to benefit most from additional blood volume derived from continued placental transfusion.
pkukp9 5y ago
In a perfect world, I think everyone has access to their own stem cells as opposed to sifting thru donor pool. Donating is definitely awesome, but there's a lot of research surrounding how cord blood transplantation from related donors (or yourself) increases your chance of survival from a stem cell transplant vs. using an unrelated donor. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejm199708073370602 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejm199708073370602 - there's a chance of rejection. This woman found a partial match, but she was lucky. I assume she's only 2 races or a common mix i.e. half white, half something else Finding a match later on can also be much more expensive than keeping your own!
- faeyanpiraat 5y ago
  How can you store your own?
  - nmfisher 5y ago
    We're expecting a baby, and in hospital waiting rooms we've been approached by a few different companies hawking cord-blood storage (in Singapore). After some brief research I concluded it was probably a waste of money for us as donors, but it's probably valuable to donate for someone else. I haven't yet asked our obstetrician whether that's an option.
  - pkukp9 5y ago
    with companies like mine haha AnjaHealth.com - we send parents a kit, they can collect, we pick it up and bring it to a lab, and parents can access it later in life
  - beembeem 5y ago
    I've done this with my wisdom teeth when they needed to come out. I used this company: ndpl.net. There were a few competitors but it's been years since I looked into it. My stem cells are sitting in a lab, frozen, awaiting my command to send them anywhere in the world for medical treatment.
    - 5y ago

by jorpal 5y ago

My wife is 33 weeks pregnant with our first. We plan to donate our baby’s cord blood to research. Cool to think it could help researchers develop treatments like this in some small way!

Gollapalli 5y ago

So, ignorant question here, but isn't the cord blood supposed to go into the baby?

Brotkrumen 5y ago
According to the small pamphlet I got, there's a small benefit to the baby's immune system if the cord isn't cut immediately and some of the blood in there is allowed to pump into the baby.

JacobThreeThree 5y ago

Did you consider freezing for future use?

The_rationalist 5y ago
jorpal 5y ago
I know some people keep the cord blood in a private bank. In my opinion it only makes sense if you have family history of or current relative with a disease that could be treated with it. Since the hospital we are using (Stanford LPCH) has a research program that will come collect it with no extra steps on our side, it seemed like a good choice.
- inglor_cz 5y ago
  Cord blood is a good source of "your own" stem cells. We do not know what is going to be possible with such cells 20 or 30 years from now; possibly unimaginable things. I would save them if I had a child. Just in case.
  - musha68k 5y ago
    Do you happen to know what's the maximum storage time? I remember reading that it was about 10 years only?
    - yread 5y ago
      we did it. It depends on the freezer. at -80C they say it's for a lifetime with a caveat that the technology is only 23 years old so none can prove it's for a lifetime, yet
  - londons_explore 5y ago
    If few other people save it, then nobody will develop treatments using it, since a treatment is only developed if it makes financial sense, and if <1% of potential patients for a treatment have cord blood banked, then a treatment that requires their personal cord blood will never be developed.
    - noah_buddy 5y ago
      There are many companies doing this now and many (affluent) parents are saving it. I think your analysis misses the mark, even if there's a niche market, if it's comprised of people willing to spend lots of money, it can make sense as a business.
      - omgwtfbyobbq 5y ago
        There are state led efforts to bank cord blood as well b/c of it's usefulness in some medical treatments and research. https://sd25.senate.ca.gov/news/2017-06-26/california-umbilical-cord-blood-collection-program-funded-uc-davis https://sd25.senate.ca.gov/news/2017-06-26/california-umbili... Unfortunately, public donations are only an option in some locations. https://health.ucdavis.edu/cord-blood/locations https://health.ucdavis.edu/cord-blood/locations
  - jorpal 5y ago
    I get that it is very tempting. We all want to do anything that could help our kids. However, there are also an endless number of things people are selling to new parents that prey on that reflex. I truly don’t know the right thing to do here, but the position I mentioned earlier basically follows the recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics: https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/140/5/e20172695/37866/Cord-Blood-Banking-for-Potential-Future https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/140/5/e20172... This was from 2017 and is basically the same as a reference I found from 2007. Has there been any actual changes in the state of the art since it was published?
- throwawaynay 5y ago
  apparently the founder of Anja Health said that she launched it after her sibling almost drowned and needed it, so maybe it make sense even without a predisposition? If I had a kid and enough disposable income I'd do it without even thinking about it to be honest
  - pkukp9 5y ago
    hello! founder of Anja Health here :) Yes, it makes sense without a predisposition. Things like HIV with the woman cited in the article, cerebral palsy due to a near drowning accident, etc. could all be use cases. Our own team has a sales exec who used stem cells for a knee injury he got in track & field in high school. Another has a grandfather who used it for dementia. BTW, a lot of our clients self identify as having <75k in income. Our pricing is 35-85/mo. for 8 years to cover 20 years of storage. :D so hopefully you don't need to allocate too much disposable income. It's still an investment for sure, but many think it's worth it. Myself included obviously haha
- speg 5y ago
  Make sure they don’t forget! In the chaos after birth, sometimes these things slip through. I’m not sure what happened when our first was born, but I do remember the folks who came by a bit later to pick up the cord being annoyed that the delivery team didn’t save it.
smnrchrds 5y ago
The umbilical cord blood storage industry is under-regulated and untrustworthy, much like another freezing-related industry, cryonics. Both are full of examples of amateurs, bad actors, and mundane issues like bankruptcy resulting in things that were promised to be kept frozen for decades or centuries ending up in waste disposal after 5 years. Like this example from Canada: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/cord-blood-bank-of-canada-owner-claims-samples-destroyed-1.6109959 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/cord-blood-bank-of-ca... Also, from the same article, does anyone has more information on this: > there's a very low probability that someone's own stem cells can be used to treat them, according to Health Canada.
- andy_ppp 5y ago
  There was a YC startup on here attempting to do this... here we go: https://anjahealth.com https://anjahealth.com
  - smnrchrds 5y ago
    I don't expect much in terms of longevity from any startup.
    - devoutsalsa 5y ago
      “It’s been said that a person dies twice, once when the body dies & once when their name is last spoken. There’s also a third time, when the company storing your frozen corpse can’t pay the power bill.”
pkukp9 5y ago
I think freezing for future use is the best way to go. A few reasons: 1) cord blood transplants from related donors have higher survival rates than unrelated donors https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejm199708073370602 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejm199708073370602 2) this woman was lucky that she was able to find a partial match, but many don't. The combination of using a related blood donor + an unrelated cord blood donor was a lucky strike. I think for many very mixed race folks or especially people of color (specifically Black communities), they may not be so lucky 3) the cost of finding a donor can be extremely steep. Some may be covered by insurance, but not all of it will be. My guess is this woman who was cured from HIV is relatively affluent to some degree. Banking cord blood is considered to be for affluent folks, but the difference in cost of banking vs. finding a donor later on is massive

skrbjc 5y ago

It's very healthy for your baby to delay cord clamping as long as possible

jorpal 5y ago
Thanks for the tip! At our hospital the standard of care is delayed cord clamping, although it sounds like they wait only a few minutes, not 15+ minutes. It used to be done in ~<1 minute, I guess, so a few minutes is called delayed now. Do you have a good reference recommending to wait “long as possible”?
- throwntoday 5y ago
  Wait until all the blood has passed through and the cord is white. Baby will likely be a little jaundiced but if you clamp too early they will have low blood levels. Don't let the hospital staff rush you (they will try). Best to let nature run its course IMO. Good luck to you and your partner.
  - sersi 5y ago
    Write a birth plan, make the doctor or hospital staff read it and confirm with them they read it. We had told the doctor we wanted delayed cord clamping (not the habit in hk), he acknowledged it despite warning us about jaundice (he was old fashioned). Then during the actual delivery, he completely forgot about it and both of us were too sleep deprived to force the issue.
    - noveltyaccount 5y ago
      This is why having a doula is so valuable. She had a clear head and advocated for us. I caught the baby and never would have asked. But the doula knew the correct time to remind the doctor.
adolph 5y ago
Here is more data on delay in cord clamping. https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/committee-opinion/articles/2020/12/delayed-umbilical-cord-clamping-after-birth https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/committee-op... because the placenta continues to perform gas exchange after delivery, sick and preterm infants are likely to benefit most from additional blood volume derived from continued placental transfusion.

pkukp9 5y ago

In a perfect world, I think everyone has access to their own stem cells as opposed to sifting thru donor pool. Donating is definitely awesome, but there's a lot of research surrounding how cord blood transplantation from related donors (or yourself) increases your chance of survival from a stem cell transplant vs. using an unrelated donor. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejm199708073370602 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejm199708073370602 - there's a chance of rejection. This woman found a partial match, but she was lucky. I assume she's only 2 races or a common mix i.e. half white, half something else Finding a match later on can also be much more expensive than keeping your own!

faeyanpiraat 5y ago
How can you store your own?
- nmfisher 5y ago
  We're expecting a baby, and in hospital waiting rooms we've been approached by a few different companies hawking cord-blood storage (in Singapore). After some brief research I concluded it was probably a waste of money for us as donors, but it's probably valuable to donate for someone else. I haven't yet asked our obstetrician whether that's an option.
- pkukp9 5y ago
  with companies like mine haha AnjaHealth.com - we send parents a kit, they can collect, we pick it up and bring it to a lab, and parents can access it later in life
- beembeem 5y ago
  I've done this with my wisdom teeth when they needed to come out. I used this company: ndpl.net. There were a few competitors but it's been years since I looked into it. My stem cells are sitting in a lab, frozen, awaiting my command to send them anywhere in the world for medical treatment.
  - 5y ago