Normally this isn’t something I would have considered for my child, and some people may feel that my husband and I are going to extremes. After all, if the good Lord wants to take my child home to him, then nothing I can say or do will ever prevent that from happening. Many people claim that playing with cord blood and stem cells is going against God’s law, but I can’t see how that’s true and perhaps I’m naive, but I can’t imagine having to go through what my mother went through.
Seven years ago this month, September 29th to be exact (strange how certain dates always stick in your head) we found out that my younger brother had leukemia. We knew what the disease was and had a basic understanding of it’s ramifications, but never thought in a million years it would hit so close to home, a direct bulls-eye at that. We watched my brother, the stronger child of the two of us, suffer through months of chemotherapy and radiation. We saw how the disease not only humbled him, but also ourselves and we watched as it broke down this once active and vital young man into a shell of a human being.
Almost 6 months later we found a bone marrow match for him. He moved to Atlanta with my parents, lived there for almost 3 months while he went through his transplant process. We were told up front this wasn’t a cure, but he could still live his life and the cancer would be in remission. This was true until a couple of years later when it came out of remission and there was nothing more we could do. My brother died fighting the hardest and worst battle any person could ever face. He fought it proudly and strongly, but in the end he died with his dignity and his faith and now serves as an angel in God’s army.
We chose to name our son after my brother, one of the greatest men to ever walk this earth, and as the days transformed into weeks and the weeks into months, I began to start giving serious consideration to cord blood banking. For those of you unsure of what this is, it’s basically taking the umbilical cord blood of your newborn child and banking it. This blood is considered to be the purest blood ever and has been found to help in such cancers like leukemia. The procedure is simple and doesn’t cause any harm to the mother or the child, but it isn’t cheap.
My husband and I discussed this process in depth and looked over our finances before firmly deciding that this is the best way to go for our son. I can’t prevent the inevitable, but I can at least provide my child with a fighting chance should he get leukemia and if it’s not used, then we can always donate to someone else who may need it.
I don’t know that I’m as strong as my mother and I don’t know how I could ever watch my child die in my arms. It was hard enough holding my brother’s hand as he took his last breath. I don’t want to experience that pain again and I don’t want my child to experience it either. Cord blood may not save his life, but banking it provides me with a little more peace of mind.
For those of you expectant mothers or for those of you who may know other expectant moms, please take some time to learn more about Cord Blood Banking and how it works. It may cost money right now, but my husband and I can always make more money, we can’t always save our child’s life or someone else’s.
My husband and I are choosing to bank ours with, CBR. Below is their link. Please take some time to check them out.
Dreaming Of Mommyhood 