Is cord blood banking worth the cost?

Probably not.: Tissue banks will charge you money to store the cord blood cells of your baby. These cells include stem cells that could be used as a source for bone marrow transplant later in childhood, but often there are not enough cells to use for a full grown adult. Since childhood cancer or aplastic anemia is so rare, the vast majority of times the cost is not worth it.

Donate instead: It is probably not worth it to bank your own child's cord blood, but i would highly recommend donating it to a cord blood bank. This is especially true of non-caucasian ethnicities, since we need more minority representation to improve the outcomes of cord blood transplants for these populations.