Cord Blood Banking is necessary.

Doctors do not recommend that you bank cord blood on the slight chance that your baby will need stem cells someday. If your baby were to need stem cells, he or she would probably need stem cells from someone else rather than his or her own stem cells.

You might consider donating the cord blood banking to a public bank instead. You probably won’t be able to use the blood, but it could be used for research or for another child.

The term “cord blood” is used to describe the blood that remains in the umbilical cord and the placenta after the birth of a baby. Up until recently, this afterbirth was discarded as medical waste. Cord blood contains stem cells that may be medically frozen and preserved for later use in medical therapies, such as stem cell transplants or clinical trials of new stem cell therapies. Cord blood can either be donated for the public good or stored privately for the family.

Private cord blood banking is expensive. You will pay a starting fee of about $1,000 to $2,000, plus a storage fee of more than $100 a year for as long as the blood is stored.