Two sides of the cord blood story

As you know, it’s sometimes hard to separate real journalism from hype when it comes to the web. Today we came upon a blog posting on Newsweek.com by Mary Carmichael in an e-column called “The human condition.”

The blogger tells of her decision not to bank her baby’s cord blood, and goes on to support her decision with input from highly regarded resources like the Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Stanford University in California. She also suggests criticism from important medical groups such as the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

 The blog articulates the possible pressure experienced by parents-to-be through the marketing practices of private banks. I’m sure we’ve all witnessed the barrage of magazine advertising and OB-office literature while waiting for those doctor appointments. But the media, in the end, needs to be fair and balanced. To that end, on this very same blog page, there is a video of a family whose son was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy at eight months old and who had a successful stem cell transfusion from the umbilical cord blood that was banked with a private bank. These heartfelt claims from his parents are hard to dispute, and so we have to applaud Newsweek for presenting two sides to the story.

Here’s a link to one of our patients: //mazecordblood.wpengine.com/video/index.html