Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has lent her name to the cause of stem cell preservation by Life Cell, a biotechnology company.

The whole process of banking a baby's stem cell has been made a lot cheaper by the company and Aishwarya urges family and friends to gift it to expecting parents.

"Families and friends can come together to make this gift possible in a parent's life. We traditionally buy so many things for expecting parents," the 39-year-old said here at the launch of the initiative Monday.

"So family and friends can come together to pursue this possibility in expectant parents lives and make that the perfect gift for the child coming into this life," she added.

Aishwarya revealed that even she and husband Abhishek opted for stem cell banking when their daughter Aaradhya was born.

"I had always banked that thought even before I got married. At that point of time we were contacted by a lot of companies and closer to the date we interacted extensively with Life Cell. Once were convinced we went ahead with the decision to bank with Life Cell,"
 Aishwarya said.Aishwarya urges expecting parents to look at it as a sensible investment.

"To those who can afford it, we really look at a lot of expenses. A lot of indulgences are so easily spent upon that somehow this thereby seems like a sensible investment," Aishwarya said.