i signed for cord blood+tissue banking with cryoviva. it's much cheaper if you can pay for the 21 years of storage lump sum (only $8k+ for premium, 6 vials instead of up to $11k if you're paying in instalments).
it seems like a huge sum of money if you look at the total sum of money you need to pay upfront, but if you break it down into 21 yrs, it's actually less than $40 per mth of storage. just treat it as buying an insurance for the baby, us and even our parents (although chances of successful match with grandparents are low). If not you can also donate to sccb; heard that donors will get admin fee waiver (of $20k?) should you require cord blood donation in future. i heard it's also good for baby to receive all the cord blood during birth, but i'm not sure if our hospitals do it. Most of the mummies I talked to just said, "if not it'll just get discarded".
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