Are you planning for cord blood donation? Then, it is important that you know about the types of these banks.

Private Vs. Public Cord Blood Banks

Cord blood banks are mainly of two types, i.e. public banks and Private Banks. Normally, public banks are set up to facilitate umbilical stem cell research for disease treatment and for utilization in transplants of non-relatives. If you decide to save your baby's cord blood at a public bank, they would not provide you the link between your baby and her blood unit. Therefore, in time of need, there is no guarantee that you will be able to access your babys blood unit. On the contrary, if you donate your baby's cord blood to a private bank, no one else is authorized to access and use that particular unit without your permission.

Public banks have been further categorized according to profit and non-profit objectives.

The Non Profit Public Bank

An estimate says that about 75 per cent of these banks across the globe are either public or private non-profit ones, which work for public interest. They save samples for transplant or research, and for family use, if a family has a known risk with a rare HLA group.

Remember, if you donate this blood to a non-profit bank, then the bank, and NOT YOU, are the owner of it. These banks store the blood for free and add them in the donor registry, which is accessed by doctors and researchers.

For Profit Public Bank

These banks save your samples for free, but make profit by selling the cord blood units for research. The selling of freely stored blood is legal in US, but illegal in several Asian and European nations.

Private Cord Blood Bank

A private bank is an independent unit and not owned by the state. As mentioned earlier, only you are entitled to access and use your cord blood sample. Such banks charge around $500 to $2,000 to store the sample. The charges vary with different private banks. Besides this, there is a maintenance fee or handling fee, which comes to around $100 annually.

Research Public Banks (RPBs)
These are another kind of banks, which were set up in the early 2000. The cord blood samples stored in such banks are not used for transplants, but only for research. The banks take your samples for free and use them in their own research or sell them to other researchers.

So, now that you are aware of the types of these banks, you can go for donations depending on whether you want to donate the sample for family use or simply help in research. Remember, if you do not like the idea of someone else using your babys stem cells, forget using public banks.

BlueWaterArticles.com: - Types Of Cord Blood BanksUnderstand The Difference To Select The Right Bank

About the Author

There are two types of cord blood banks. Private cord blood banks and public cord blood banks. CordBlood-Banking.Org offers details about the way public and private cord blood banks work and other aspects of stem cell and cord blood issues to help you make a smart choice.