Expecting parents are faced with a lot of important decisions before their baby is born. These include, what to name the baby, which Pediatrician to go to, breastfeeding vs. bottle feeding, etc. More often, the expecting parents are considering the issue of whether or not to bank their baby's umbilical cord blood.

Cord blood, which has typically been discarded as medical waste, provides an alternative source of hematopoietic stem cells. With cord blood, the degree of HLA mismatching that can be tolerated is greater than with bone marrow or perpheral blood.

Families have two ways to preserve cord blood. Saving the cord blood specifically for family use. Or donation to a public bank.

Stored cord blood is readily available to family members should the need arise - without having to wait for registries to find a match. The process is painless, less expensive than other procedures, and there's reduced risk of graft vs. host disease. The other is donation to blood bands such as the Texas Cord Blood and Tissue Bank. www.bloodntissue.org

Umbilical cord blood stem cells can be used in transplants to treat a range of pediatric disorders, including leukemia, sickle cell disease, and metabolic disorders. Patients who need a cord blood transplant can currently try to find a match with a sibling or from an unrelated person. An autologous (self) transplant can also be done if a child's umbilical cord blood has been stored in a private cord blood bank, although you wouldn't do that for conditions like leukemia because of the genetic risk of the leukemia being in the cord blood too.

Benefits of cord blood:  There is no risk to the donor. Since cord blood immune cells are less mature, they are more easily accepted by the patient when used in transplantation. As a result, patients with a less than perfect immune match can now be treated There are fewer immune complications after transplantation.