Assuming you are talking about privatly banking… This should have been in your contract with the company you choose. Most private banks are contracting to keep the cord blood for 20 years. Currently, we know they can be viable for around 10 years. If the stem cells are never used, you keep paying for storage. Your contract may have a clause that if its not used by a certain date it gets donated to the public bank and your contract ends. But again, all of that should be in your contract. There should also be a clause in your contract stating that you can choose to have it donated to the public bank at some point at your own choosing.

If you are talking about donating to the public bank… It gets stored until someone needs it for a transplant or research.

I banked my daughter’s cord blood also. With our family history, it made sense.

We don’t yet know how long stem cells from cord blood will be viable for. Long term storage is a little explored frontier.

If it is needed, it will be thawed and sent where ever you need it. If there’s a good chance you’ll need it, hopefully you chose someone with a 24/7 customer service team, to ensure its available as soon as possible if you need it. Not everyone offers that service.