Parents weigh up benefits of cord blood banking
Cord blood banking - the collection and storage of blood from a newborn baby's umbilical cord - is a contentious procedure that is, however, gaining popularity in Hong Kong.
The purpose of cord blood banking is to save the stem cells in the blood to treat illnesses later in life. If an expectant mother has signed up for the service, medical staff will extract the blood from a vein in the umbilical cord immediately after she has given birth. It is then collected and stored in a private cord blood bank.
The procedure has to be done in a private hospital. Two public hospitals will do the procedure, but the blood is donated to the Red Cross public cord blood bank.
One of the main private cord blood banks in Hong Kong is HealthBaby, the local subsidiary of a Taiwan-based cord blood bank, which has facilities in Macau, Thailand and the United States. Assistant marketing manager Cindy Wong said the company had collected more than 7,000 samples during its three years in Hong Kong.
HealthBaby said the Red Cross public cord blood bank played a valuable role. However, there are crucial differences. The most important is that donors relinquish ownership of the cord blood when they donate it. They will have no automatic right to use it if their child or relative needs it in the future; and the process of checking a potential recipient's compatibility with the samples it holds must be done from scratch.
Some authorities, including the American Academy of Paediatricians, have expressed doubts about storing the blood, saying there was no need to do so unless there is a family history of illnesses that might require UCBT.
Wong said that the procedure had its advantages, since collecting and storing cord blood could be done easily regardless of the method used to deliver the baby, while posing no risk to the mother or infant. More importantly, it will be ready for use whenever needed. 'It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance.'
However, some mothers still have misgivings about the procedure. Carmen Ho, who has just given birth to her first child this month, explored the possibility of banking the cord blood, but decided against it.
'I'm not really sure how useful cord blood banking is,' she said. 'It might help with many serious illnesses, and even for relatives, but it is not very concrete about how practical and viable it would be to use the blood. It seems like you would be paying for something that might end up being of no use.'
She was also concerned about the storage system's safety and what would happen if it broke down. 'Also, due to the financial crisis, you don't know which company is reputable and will remain in business for 18 years. My understanding is that you have to pay up front to store it, but what if the company goes bankrupt?'
On the other hand, some mothers see the procedure as a form of insurance.
Joanna Tan Jones, for example, had her first child's cord blood stored when her baby girl was born three months ago. 'I first heard about cord blood banking when my father developed advanced prostate cancer. We explored many different potential forms of treatment, and someone suggested a grandchild's cord blood could be used. But, although some relatives did have their cord blood stored, the opportunity didn't arise,' she said.
'Although the technology's effectiveness isn't 100 per cent proven, who knows? It might advance a lot in the future and become a life saver.'
I'd never be able to forgive myself if that happened and I hadn't had the cord blood stored,' she said. 'You hope you'll never need it, but you should have it anyway, just in case.'
HealthBaby works with all the private hospitals in Hong Kong and Macau and charges HK$35,000 to collect, process and store a baby's cord blood for 18 years.
