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Angie's List

Banking on Life - Parents to be weigh tough decision on saving umbilical cord blood.

Gretchen Jacott was conscientious about every aspectof her pregnancy from exercising to eating organic foods, so when she and her husband read a pamphlet on privately banking the baby's cord blood, she says it was an easy choice.

The umbilical cord contains stem cells that can help reconstitute bone marrow and have proven to be effective in treating approximately 80 diseases, including a number of cancers and genetic, immunologic and metabolic disorders. Cord blood stem cells are also being used in experimental therapies, called regenerative medicine, to repair or regenerate tissue in patients with heart disease, stroke, cerebral palsy and spinal cord injury, among others. "[I thought] God forbid if something comes up in five or 10 years, our unborn child would benefit and it would only cost a few hundred dollars a year for a miracle," Jacott says.

Angie's List, October 2009 Issue
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