It's a question that more expectant mothers are being asked these days.

They're told it's a question that may save their child's life later on.

But is cord blood banking really worth the cost?

Doctor Pamela Dorne has delivered hundreds of babies, and given birth to three children of her own.

Chris, Jen and Kyle Dorne all have something their mom describes as biological insurance.

The blood from their umbilical cord was collected moments after they were born, and stored.

In effect, Dr. Dorne saved her kids' stem cells, which researchers hope will one day be the ultimate repair kit for the body.

Cynthia and Derak Hextell believe just such a study changed their son's life.

Their worries began soon after Dallas was born.

He had cerebral palsy, and then the Hextells remembered that they had saved his cord blood.

But in a duke university experiment, they infused the stem cells from Dallas’s own umbilical cord back into his body… hoping to repair his brain.

And about a week afterwards, both the Hextells and Dr. Pamela Dorne are compelling spokespeople for a business called cord blood registry.

It initially charges $2,000, and then a 125 yearly fee to store your baby's cord blood.

It's a practice some well known doctors groups don't favor.

And pediatricians like Chicago’s Anita Chandra say private banking means no one else has access to the cord blood.

Transplant experts encourage donations to public banks because they say hundreds of people die every year, needing a stem cell transplant, but unable to find a match.

But whether saving cord blood for yourself or donating to a public bank, it's still a fact that only a small minority of parents bank umbilical cord blood.

Ninety-five percent of the time these potentially valuable stem cells are simply treated as medical waste and thrown away.