Uncertainties of Cord Blood BankingBanking your baby's cord blood is a worthwhile procedure overall, but parents also need to be aware there are a number of uncertainties of cord blood banking. Being fully informed about these disadvantages will help you make a better decision when it comes to opting to store your baby's cord blood. One of the most basic uncertainty involved in the procedure is the cord-blood banking industry has been largely unregulated. This means there are no universal guidelines that these banks have to adhere to. They choose the methods that work best for them in collecting and storing your baby's cord blood, which indicates there is a lack of quality control in the industry. Another worry for parents is the ethics involved in cord blood banking. As an expecting parent you would have been bombarded with flyers and advertisements asking you to bank your baby's blood as a sort of insurance policy against any inherited disorder. However the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) frowns on this premise. The AAP says, "Storing cord blood at private banks for later personal or family use as a general “insurance policy” is discouraged." But most parents disregard this advice. You need to be aware that the chances of using your baby's cord blood in case some disorder is detected in later life are minimal. "No accurate estimates exist of the likelihood of children needing their own stored cells. The range of available estimates is from 1:1,000 to 1:2, 00,000. Empirical evidence that children will need their own cord blood for future use is lacking," the American Academy of Pediatrics' Work group states in the July 1999 issue of the journal Pediatrics. Furthermore if your child has any genetic condition, it is more likely than not that the stored cord blood also has the same genetic make-ip and hence cannot be used to treat any such disorders. This point is made very clear in the November 2004 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, "As medicine is currently practiced, a child's own cord blood cannot be used if the child is born with a genetic disease or develops leukemia." As is evident there are many uncertainties of cord blood banking. Nevertheless banking your baby's blood is one of the best things you can do, provided there are no conditions that contraindicate such a procedure
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