stem cell

I think if you have the spare $$ .. its a worthwhile "just in case" investment.

(Although I am presuming you are talking about banking the stem cells in the cord bank....your post was a tad brief)

DH and I've been thinking on this one of a lot recently. If you have a family history of late onset cancer (leukemia/bone marrow) it could be worth it, or if your child acquires cerebral palsy then again it could be worth it. However, to have the cerebral palsy treatment at present you have to go to the US and it's really really expensive ($40k).

Stem cell research is still a new area of science, one of my dearest friends is a stem cell researcher and so we drilled her a little while she was here, we were expecting to get a big rave on how wonderful it was and how we should definitely take the opportunity, we didn't get that from her though.

We have decided now, that it isn't going to be worth it in the end and we would rather leave the cord un-clamped after birth until it stops pulsing and allow our baby to get the added benefits that comes with that. It was a hard decision for us to make as DH's grandmother died of leukemia a year before I met him and his mother is currently in remission for bone marrow cancer and all my mum's family have alzheimers. From what we have read, it's actually better for your child to get stem cells from a matching donor for the cancer treatments, especially if it's childhood cancer.

I'd recommend doing some research on your own, looking at the pro's and con's and also look at your family histories. It's a tough decision to make.