When you find you are pregnant, whether it is the first time or the fourth time it can seem like the whole world has new information for you to digest and make decisions on.

One of the things you are sure to hear about is banking your baby's umbilical cord blood, this idea is relatively new so there is a good chance that you don't really know why you would want to bank the cord blood.

1- Protection against future ill health

You are expecting a baby and the last thing you want to think about is that there is even the faintest possibility that your baby will ever be sick. As horrible as it is to think about any of our kids getting ill, it does happens and any insurance you can have to protect them is worthwhile.

2- Advancing Medical Knowledge

While the benefits that you will gain at the moment from the blood you store may not seem worth the time or effort, no one really knows what the future holds. This is especially true for medicine, illnesses that had high mortality rates 30 years ago are now treatable and in many cases completely curable.

3- Help Others

As well as helping your child, or one of their siblings at some time in the future, your choice to save the umbilical cord could well save another child or another member of your family.

While it may not seem like something that would have happened in our parents day that is no reason to just throw this simple method of having some sort of insurance against possible future illness.