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Jane, Regarding the use of umbilical cord blood, there are two ways I know of in which it is routinely used. The first is to store for as long as you wish in case the baby should come down later with an illness that requires a stem cell/bone marrow transplant. There is a rather sizeable fee to set this procedure in place. It is large enough so that the storage facilities make arrangements to finance the charges. There is then a yearly maintenance fee that is paid for as long as it is stored. For some reason the price of $150./year comes to mind. I also believe that in our area is is the responsibility of the donors family to provide for currier costs and pick up at the time of delivery. The other is that it can be donated to a bank for use by others who might need a transplant. For this there is no cost that I know of. I suppose that there might be research organizations that might be interested in cord blood if they don't have access to a local supply, but I don't know about that. As a former OB nurse whose facility was just beginning to collect cord blood for these purposes at the time I changed jobs about a year ago, that is all the information that I have, however, your daughter's OB doctor's office and/or the hospital in which her delivery will occur should have the specifics for your area. This isn't yet common in a lot of places and so not easily done. I would recommend learning about the requirements and seeing if you need to set things up with the hospital in advance so that they will be prepared. Congratulations in advance of your new grandchild. Susan cocg Elizabeth 60/69/82