Cord Blood

Since I started the week with the heavy topic of Quad tests, i figured i'd keep the trend going and talk about Cord Blood.

So, until we went to the doctor for the first time to find out we were expecting, I hadn't so much as even heard the term cord blood registry. Maybe I'm just clueless but I didn't even know such a thing existed or what it was. Our doctor didn't talk to us about it, but there we signs/brochures for it everywhere. I still haven't looked into it much, but here is what I have seen:

The most prevalent advertiser is Cord Blood Registry. But I am sure there are others (anyone know of any?) They have an impressive list of diseases that can be effectively treated utilizing stem cells from Cord Blood. They also have a nice listing of stories from real people.

All sounds great so far... now comes the cost. Medically speaking it's pretty unobtrusive, the blood is extracted from the umbilical cord, it is painless and takes only about 5 minutes. However, the cost is pretty high, and as far as I can tell few if any insurance companies cover the cost to extract and store the blood. It's about $1700 upfront and then about $125/year storage. While that is a lot of money, it's a drop in the bucket (what wouldn't you pay) if your child gets a disease that the blood could be used to save...

So it's a tough question... has anyone else thought about it yet... has anyone already done this or planning to?

Here are some others I just found with a quick google search:
http://www.alphacord.com/freeinfopacket.aspx
http://www.viacord.com/?gclid=CMj8zqyx9YsCFQ6EUgodgRI3bg

There is also the discussion of Private vs. Public banks (with public banks being free to donate to, but you don't then control the blood or its use...i.e. its free, but your cord blood might not be there when you need it).... but we'll save that discussion for some other time.