A recent investigation by CBC-TV's Marketplace reported that health claims made by private cord-blood banks to persuade parents to save their baby's umbilical cord blood can overstate the advantages; some of it could be flawed.

In Canada, is reported to have total of 12 private cord-blood banks, all offering to store frozen cord blood for years. The service is sold under the tag name "lifesaving biological insurance" - in case the child falls in prey to disease later in life.

However, saving cord blood can be very expensive, costing up to $3,000 over 18 years, and the chance a child will ever use the stored blood is extremely low, experts post.

Cord blood is the blood that remains in the umbilical cord following a baby's birth, containing stem cells that can help to re-grow blood and bone-marrow cells and is used to treat diseases such as leukaemia and some immune disorders.

Dr. Kirk Schultz of B. C.'s Children and Family Research Institute reveals that nearly 35 out of one million children is hit by leukaemia every year, and leukaemia is one of the more common diseases treated with cord-blood stem cells.

You can watch the segment on cord blood on Marketplace, Friday at 8:30 p. m. ET, 9 p. m. in Newfoundland and Labrador