September 27th, 2012
11:51 AM ET
Giuliana and Bill Rancic: Why we banked Duke's cord bloodAmong the myriad of questions new parents must ask is whether to bank the cells from their newborn's umbilical cord blood, and for Giuliana and Bill Rancic, that answer was a definite yes. As the couple explains in a blog post for People magazine, "After our own health scares and all that we went through to finally get pregnant, it was a no-brainer for us. We’ve always taken charge of our own health and wanted to do the same for our son even before he was born."
So when their recent addition, Edward Duke, arrived via gestational surrogate at the end of August, Giuliana and Bill were already prepared to bank his cord blood with Cord Blood Registry (CBR), a stem cell bank that Giuliana's sister used for all four of her kids. "Like all parents, we want a healthy future for our child, but no one can predict the future," Giuliana and Bill write in their blog post. "The value of cord blood stem cells is something we want every parent to be informed about. ... [T]hey may not know saving it can provide more medical options for their family today and in the future." As a result, the Style network reality stars have partnered with CBR for the Healthy Futures Campaign, which intends to "empower all expectant parents to make an informed decision about their umbilical cord options."
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we respected in hollywood...guiliana is not trash and a bad example to her husband
Don't be fooled by "for profit" Cord Blood Banks that offer to bank your child's Cord Blood privately. If your child does get Cancer and needs a transplant, their own Cord Blood will not be used for that transplant. And if a sibling of your child needs a transplant, bone marrow from the sibling will be used rather than the banked cord blood. Donating to a public Cord Blood Bank can do a lot more good than banking it privately. My daughter (who was diagnosed w/ Leukemia at 10 months old) had two Cord Blood Transplants and both of the donations came from public Cord Blood Banks.
Also I should point out that in most cases Cord Blood Transplants, unlike Bone Marrow Transplants, do not need to be a perfect match. My daughter first Cord Blood Donor was an unrelated 6 point (out of 6) match and her second donor was an unrelated 4 point match. Here's a little known fact, sometimes a lesser match is actually preferable for transplant patients. For my daughter's second transplant we were trying to create more GVL (graft vs. leukemia) than she experienced with the first failed transplant.
This is an excerpt from a 2005 article Business Week article that still rings true today:
Cord Blood For A Rainy Day
http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-06-19/talk-show
The science of stem cells is confusing enough. But for some parents, it's also expensive. Worried their newborn might miss out on medical breakthroughs, parents are rushing to store blood from the umbilical cord. At Cord Blood Registry, the largest private storage bank, enrollments rose 120% in May over a year earlier. The San Bruno (Calif.) outfit has 300,000 samples frozen at a storage facility in Tucson. It charges $1,975 to store blood, plus an annual $125 maintenance fee. "Like home insurance and car insurance, this is just-in-case insurance," says Stephen Grant, the bank's co-founder.
But the American Academy of Pediatrics says private storage is "unwise" unless families have a history of diseases such as sickle cell anemia. (In those cases, Cord Blood Registry will store it for free.) Usually donors and recipients need only have the same racial or ethnic heritage. "The chances that your own child will need to use banked cord blood are extremely low," says Dr. Maria Escolar, a stem cell researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A better idea, she says: donate to one of 22 public banks for use in transplants and research.
If you're pregnant, I would encourage you to donate your child's cord blood to any of the hospitals on this list:
http://marrow.org/Get_Involved/Donate_Cord_Blood/How_to_Donate/Participating_Hospitals.aspx
There's no cost to you and you just might save a life. My 14 year old daughter Alex is alive today because somebody donated their child's cord blood to the Carolinas Cord Blood Bank at Duke University Medical Center. You can read Alex's story at http://www.alexupdate.com/backgrnd.htm .
Are the settings on my monitor out of wack, or is that one jacked up photo?
Naaah. They really do look like that. Scary isn't it.
her hub is so calm with her...he doesn't live a miserable life and i love that.
these is a couple one looks up to all the time...they are an example to marriages and see like overall great people.
they are a classy couple which admire all the time. there a happy couple which i respect.
Really? If you think they are a classy couple you must live in a double wide!
They are a joke and they are nobody's who splash every intimate detail of thier lives on Tv for money they are nothing but w.h.o.r.e.s!
If I had it to do over again, I'd have banked the cord blood for all three of my daughters. One of them got cancer when she was a toddler, and though she got through all the treatment and has been in remission for four years, it occurred to me many times that banked cord blood would have been an excellent idea. Smart thinking Rancic's, may Duke live a happy, healthy life and never have any need for that banked blood.
It's a great idea, if you can afford to do it. Obviously, they can. You never know what life is going to throw at you. Being prepared is always a good way to go.
Sounds gross.
They should do this- they can afford to.