Angela Larson, 39, has two healthy children — and she certainly hopes they stay that way.

But just in case something tragic happens, she’s prepared.

Larson and her husband spent a total of $6,000 to bank both of their children’s umbilical cord blood until they are 18 years old.

If 9-year-old Noah or three-month-old Katie are diagnosed with cerebral palsy, suffer from a brain injury or become victims of any of about 70 diseases or conditions, they will have a treatment option available to them that most children don’t: Cord blood stem cells.

Cord blood is currently known to treat diseases such as malignancies, bone marrow failure, hemoglobinopathies, immunodeficiencies and inborn errors of metabolism, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The list of conditions that cord blood stem cells can treat continues to grow as new research is conducted.

To bank cord blood stem cells, the blood must be retrieved from a newborn baby’s umbilical cord moments after the birth. The procedure is simple for medical professionals and is not harmful to the infant or the mother, according to the AAP.

Private cord blood banking can be expensive for many families. The cost at most cord blood banks is about $2,000 for the initial collection, then $125 annually.

Larson and her husband paid for 18 years of storage for both children. It was a cost that, to them, was well worth the peace of mind knowing they had the cord blood.

“I researched into it and I was like, well, just in case,” Larson said. “I think of it like an insurance policy.”

There is no history of medical conditions in Larson’s family that are treatable by cord blood stem cells.

“There’s probably very little chance that we’re ever going to need it, but in case there is,” she said. “Are you more likely to win the lottery than needing this? I don’t know. But it’s more of a peace of mind sort of thing.”

Clashing opinions

Experts disagree on the chances of a child eventually needing to use their own cord blood.

According to the AAP, the chances of a child eventually needing their own cord blood range from one in 1,000 to one in 200,000. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists states that the likelihood of cord blood being used by a child or a family member is one in 2,700.

David Zitlow, a spokesman for the Cord Blood Registry private cord blood bank, said the odds of a child needing his or her own cord blood change rapidly and vary widely depending on the source. He noted that the odds a child will be diagnosed with cerebral palsy, one of the diseases treatable with cord blood, are one in 278.

But parents should not base their decision on the numbers, Zitlow said.

“It’s less important for the expectant parent to worry about what the odds are because no parent is going to say they’re going to gamble with a child’s health,” he said.

The AAP encourages donating cord blood to a public bank, but discourages the practice of private cord blood banking for a family’s personal use. Public cord blood banking is free and the blood is available to anyone in need of a transplant, or it may be used for research purposes. Not all hospitals collect cord blood for public banking.

The AAP does recommend private cord blood banking for families who have an older child suffering from a condition that could benefit from cord blood treatment, such as a genetic immunodeficiency.

In a January 2007 report, the AAP notes that in many cases where cord blood could be used to treat a condition, the condition will also be present in the cord blood and it will be unusable.

Zitlow disagrees with the AAP’s recommendation. He said the findings in the report are outdated. Although in some cases, cord blood will be unusable because it will also be infected with the disease, there are still many cases where cord blood can be used, he said.

In the past year, Cord Blood Registry has released an average of one sample per week for medical use, Zitlow said. Prior to that, the number was significantly lower.

“We’re starting to see this very rapidly increasing curve, and part of that is because of the increasing uses,” Zitlow said.

The most common current use of privately stored cord blood is for treatment of cerebral palsy, Zitlow said. Ongoing studies indicate that cord blood may be useful to treat brain injuries, spinal cord injuries and near-drownings.

“I think we’ve really just scratched the surface of what’s possible,” he said. “Things are changing very quickly and what I think we’ll see is that cord blood will be used in ways it hasn’t been in the past.”

Private cord blood banking is expensive because the technology involved is complicated and expensive, Zitlow said. He predicts that in the future, as banking becomes a more common practice, the price will decrease. He also predicts that insurance companies may begin covering the cost as cord blood banking is seen as a preventative measure and cost-saving strategy.

Banked cord blood can be stored indefinitely and used by patients well into their adult lives, Zitlow said. Currently, researchers have samples of cord blood that have been stored for 20 years and are still viable.

Children who are minorities or whose parents are a mixed race couple may have additional difficulty finding matching cord blood stem cells from an unrelated donor if there is ever a need, Zitlow said. Those families should more strongly consider private cord blood banking.

Cord Blood Registry and other private cord blood banks get the word out to potential customers by advertising in pregnancy magazines and providing materials that are made available in doctor’s offices. According to the Parents Guide to Cord Blood Foundation, in 2008 less than 5 percent of parents in the United States opted to collect and privately store their newborn’s cord blood.

At St. Francis Hospital in Federal Way, doctors neither advocate for nor discourage private cord blood banking, said spokesman Gale Robinette.

“If we have moms that want to do that, we certainly provide that service,” Robinette said. “It happens, but not a lot.”

If parents choose to privately bank a baby’s cord blood, they must discuss it with their doctor in advance, Robinette said. St. Francis is not equipped to collect cord blood for public donation. Cord blood can be donated through several Puget Sound area hospitals to the Puget Sound Blood Center.

For more information about cord blood banking and for a list of public and private cord blood banks, visit www.parentsguidecordblood.com.

Contact Margo Horner: mhorner@fedwaymirror.com or (253) 925-5565.