The American Hospital Association has deemed July “Cord Blood Awareness Month”, a campaign that hopes to increase awareness of the value that cord blood has in stem cell research.

“He started off with them not even sure he was going to make it through”, says Rachel Morrow, Korben’s mother. “Now, he’s home and they’re expecting him to live a long, fully happy life”.

For more than 20 years, cord blood has been used to treat a wide variety of diseases, including many forms of blood cancer and bone marrow malfunctions. Although the medical world is making great use of the stem cells derived from cord blood, many expecting parents are unaware of the benefits that come with banking their children’s cord blood.

Family doctors are encouraged to present the option of cord blood banking to parents who are expecting children, but it is still quite common for parents to discover the value of their children’s cord blood long after they are born. In fact, according to a study by the Journal of Reproductive Medicine, only 14% of expecting mothers are educated about cord blood banking by their family doctor.

So, Cord Blood Awareness Month was established to ensure that people all over North America know the benefits of banking their children’s cord blood. The stem cells derived from the cord blood unit can be used to treat a myriad of diseases, and many parents believe that it is valuable source of insurance if their children were to ever fall ill.

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