"I tell people it is still a rather new science and that it is expensive. The chances of needing the cord blood are pretty low. If I myself was going through it today, I probably wouldn't do it. It's a bit like having meteor insurance — it is beneficial should anything happen, but it is so rare that you will need it that it is not necessarily worth the money. It can't hurt, though." — Kenneth Saul, MD, FAAP. Thousand Oaks, CA.
"This is a new procedure which, so far, hasn't proven its worth or longevity. But if you want to spend the money (it's not cheap), you have only one chance to make the decision, which is when your baby is born. If it proves to be life-saving later on, it will pay for itself many times over. But we don't know that now." — Eugenia Marcus, MD, FAAP. Newton, MA.
"It can be life-saving, but it's very expensive and the likelihood that you will ever need the cord blood is very low. If money is not an issue, I always tell people to make sure the bank has been around and is reliable. Some banks have fallen under and people have lost their cord blood." — Erin Thelander, MD, FAAP. Brooklyn, NY.
To obtain these results, we randomly called 300 AAP-approved pediatricians in 50 states, then tallied the answers of the 20 who called back.
Read more about this issue in our Health & Development section!
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