The American Hospital Association has designated July as Cord Blood Awareness Month.
According to research published in the Journal of Reproductive Medicine, 3 out of every 4 pregnant women consider themselves only "minimally informed" about how using a child's own cord blood can repair damaged tissue due to injury or cure diseases.
To see how cord blood can save lives, check out cord blood survivor Natalie Curry's (Twitter: @natalie_curry) blog at NatalieCurry.com.
Curry was born with a fatal blood disorder called Fanconis Anemia, and without a bone marrow transplant from a perfect HLA match, she would likely have died before the age of ten. Fortunately, her sister Emily was a perfect match and her cord blood was saved and frozen at birth for Natalie's future cord blood transplants. Thanks to the power of cord blood, Natalie Curry now lives in New York City where she is writing a book about her story to help raise awareness.
A nonprofit, tax-exempt organization, Save the Cord Foundation was established to create and provide educational awareness and to distribute unbiased, factual information concerning the life-saving benefits of cord blood, and the need to preserve this valuable natural resource.
Save the Cord Foundation (Twitter: @SaveTheCord) is working to make the collection of cord blood the standard of care in hospitals throughout the nation, and to make public cord blood banks a national priority.
To learn more about cord blood stem cells, check out these Cord Blood Fast Facts.
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