Storing a baby's cord-blood stem cells is proving popular with parents these days.
For one parent, Ms Rachel Lin, 35, the expenses involved are paid by her employer UBS, a Swiss financial services company.
Under its Flexible Benefits Scheme, she can claim up to $3,000 for maternity expenses. Part of this money was used to pay for the storage of her daughter's cord blood at Stemcord, Singapore's first private cord blood bank.
The blood in the umbilical cord contains stem cells which experts say have the potential to treat a wide range of diseases, including common cancers and blood disorders.
'If my child gets sick in future, we could use these stem cells to find a cure, and I am lucky that the company is willing to defray the cost of storage,' said Ms Lin, UBS' director of corporate communications.
The UBS scheme, open to all its 2,400 employees here, allows Ms Lin to make claims on medical expenses incurred by her parents and child.
'I can use it to pay for visits to the paediatrician or to buy insurance. It even covers traditional Chinese medicine,' she said.
UBS also has an insurance plan to protect mothers and their newborns in the event of birth complications.
All mothers in the company have access to four nursing rooms in its premises at One Raffles Quay and Suntec.
'Some of my friends who work in other places tell me they express their breast milk in rather unhygienic conditions, like the toilet,'' said Ms Lin, whose daughter, Charlotte, is now 20 months old.
'I think I am very fortunate to have a private room that even has hot running water.'
As a working mum, she has to 'juggle so many things. We are mothers, wives, daughters and staff members'.
She is glad that she can ask to work from home if need be.
'If my in-laws cannot free up time to look after my daughter, and I do not trust my child to be alone with the maid, I can speak to my boss to let me work from home.
'The answer, more often than not, is yes.'
This article was first published in The Straits Times on July 20, 2008.
