If you haven’t picked up the March issue of Metro Parent, you’ll want to do so today. We’ll begin distribution of our April (Earth Day) issue tomorrow. (Disclaimer: You can always access the March issue online in the Archives section of the Web site.)
There’s a lot of great stuff in the March issue. We cover a bunch of Parent Education topics in our Ages & Stages feature – from the importance of executing a will to how to talk to your kids about the birds and the bees. We review OMSI’s fantastic new exhibit, Da Vinci: The Genius and we help get you started on “greening” your (house)cleaning. And much more.
One of the issues we cover is the hot topic of cord blood banking. If you’ve given birth in the past few years, you’ve no doubt given this subject some thought. You’ve also, no doubt, been bombarded with advertising from private cord blood banks, urging you to not miss out on this “once in a lifetime” opportunity to bank your child’s cord blood for future use. Of course, there’s a cost: the two most popular private cord blood banks charge about $2,000 for the initial fee, plus $125 annually for storage.
In our March issue, OHSU physician Eneida Nemecek discusses the value of cord blood, which is rich in stem cells which can potentially cure many diseases. She then makes a strong argument for donating your child’s cord blood to a public bank, versus paying the hefty fees involved in private banking on the (very remote) chance that your children will ever need to access their cord blood.
The American Academy of Pediatrics concurs. The AAP “encourages families to donate their newborn’s cord blood, which is normally discarded at birth, to cord blood banks (if accessible in their area) for use by other individuals in need. Storing cord blood at private banks for later personal or family use as a general ‘insurance policy’ is discouraged.” (The full AAP statement on cord blood banking is available at this link: http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/jan07cordblood.htm
Nemecek points out that local parents now have a public cord bank option in the area, the recently-opened Oregon Cord Blood Donation Program. Click here for more information on this valuable program.

March 25th, 2009 | Category: Metro Parent