For women looking to having children, there is a way you can add protection for your baby.

It is a certain protection that could last a lifetime.

Banking your baby umbilical cord blood may one day save your child's life.

Stem cells taken from a person may play an important role in healing nerve and brain cells, as well as in treating cerebral palsy, sickle cell anemia and inherited immune system disorders.

However, stem cells have caused a lot of controversy, due to how they are taken.

Now, there's a way doctors can get these cells from newborns, by using what's normally discarded; the blood from a newborn's umbilical cord.

"There are probably 50 diseases that have now been treated with blood stem cells. There's no better material to transplant than their own blood. The reason for that is if you utilize their own blood, they don't have to go on immune suppressive therapy for the rest of their life," says Dr. Claude Ashley, M.D., Ph.D.

"If your child is on the soccer field, if your child falls off a bike, if your child falls out a window and suffers a brain injury. Now, we can treat them with cord blood. So, it's really important. It's insurance for the future," says Children's Health Advocate Alison Rhodes.

Dr. Ashley banked his children's cord blood. He calls it insurance he hopes he'll never have to use.

"I thought about this a lot. When both of my children were born, my wife and I elected to bank privately their stem cells. This could not only be life saving, but also curative," says Dr. Ashley.

Right now, Dothan does not have public cord blood banking.

However, you can opt for the more expensive private banking, giving a little extra security for your child and a little piece of mind for yourself.

For more information on how to bank your baby's umbilical cord blood, log onto the American Association of Blood Banking.