So I've registered at babiesrus.com (which has all the essentials) and even Amazon.com (which has lots of fun, quirky stuff like language CDs for babies, as well as great organics), but the best registry we started was this gift registry. I signed up for the cord blood gift registry just for the fun of it, but signing up for the actual Cord Blood Registry and cord blood banking service was something we took very seriously.
Saving Baby M's cord blood costs about the same amount as Patrick's new MacBook Pro. It's not cheap, but it was a no-brainer, even though we are trying to save for a new house while buying armloads of baby items, like a stroller, car seat, crib, changing table, bouncer, swing, etc. etc.
Here are some facts from the Cord Blood Registry site:
The blood that remains in your baby's umbilical cord after it has been cut is called cord blood which is rich in stem cells. These valuable cells which are genetically unique to your baby and family, can only be collected in the minutes after your baby's birth.
Preserving your newborn's stem cells is called cord blood banking and allows you to have your baby's cord blood saved for potential medical uses to treat life-threatening diseases. If you do not choose to bank your baby’s cord blood, it will be discarded after birth.
Although not all diseases treated with stem cells have been treated specifically with cord blood stem cells, doctors have been using cord blood in lifesaving treatments against things like Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia and Sickle Cell Disease, as well as malignancies like brain tumors and ovarian cancer.
Cord blood banking will be one more big expense we'll have to budget for, and we hope we'll never even have to use it, but we figured there was no way we could say no to this opportunity, given its potential life-saving effects.
After all, it's only the cost of a MacBook Pro, and it could save our baby's life.
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