wow long time never come in. COngrats to Afcai! OMG so many premature births nowadays. I wonder if it has anything to do with our lifestyles and stress levels. In anycase, I am so happy for you. Congrats once again
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Skimmed through the tyhreads and saw some queries on SCCB. Thought I'll share my experience. Just met the SCCB rep last sat at my gynae's clinic and threw alot alot of questions at her.
They don't collect from us for free and go around selling our bb's CB for profit lah. Not like this. They are a non-profit organisation, funded partly by the government. Not linked to the government though. Actually there is a high cost to collecting, testing and storage of CB ... so while they store these CB for free, non donors (e.g. as in non blood relatives of the said CB) will need to pay $25k to USE the CB. The money subsidizes the cost of maintaining the facilities for everyone else. Donors (e.g. your BB and blood relatives) can use it at a fee of $500, provided it is still available lah. Actually I can't rem if it is $500 exactly ... roughly a few hundred lah. Very forgetful these days so pls excuse me. She also told me that since SCCB started they have successfully assisted in I think 16 transplants, about half are overseas cases. NONE are for blood relatives let alone used by the donor him/herself. My figures are a bit fuzzy (really have lost half my brain cells since preggie) but the percentage is about there lah.
Basically the point she is making is, it is highly unlikely that your bb can use back his/her CB. More likely for siblings or for parents. It is not just SCCB that says this. Public banks and hospital groups from US, Canada and Europe also say the same. Don't know lah, like what one mommy pointed out, they (public vs pte) all have their own agendas.
E.g. say the child #2 need to find a match for transplant, then we need to tell the transplabnt physician that we have ever stored #1's CB before, whether in public or pte. Then the physician will access the records at the said bank. (Accessing is FOC lah, SCCB won't charge for that. Note if you donate to SCCB then there is a chance it might not be available anymore.) So if physician says whatever is stored is an excellent match of a certain grade (they have different grades one), then good for you. A transplant takes place and SCCB charges $500.
However, there is a high chance that even the sibling's CB is not a GOOD ENOUGH match. Physician might find a way better match through local/ global public banks. Then of course, physician will recommend using the better one (lower risk of rejection). If found through SCCB, you need to pay $25k to use that CB.
hope this helps.
Me now 35week 3rd day. Just finished a McDonald Hot Fudge Sundae. Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee