Every year, 4 million babies are born in the United States. Umbilical cord blood is a potentially life-saving treatment for more than 80 different diseases, including leukemia, lymphoma, and other blood disorders. But right now, more than 90% of it gets discarded as medical waste.

Less than 30% of people are aware of the option to donate cord blood, but the need is critical. So the Parent’s Guide to Cord Blood, a foundation aimed at educating parents about Cord Blood Donation, created The Youngest Donor – an awareness campaign aimed at educating the public about the value and ease of umbilical cord donation in order to increase registration.

The birth plan is the ideal tool to drive registration as expectant parents simply need to indicate the desire to make the cord blood donation. But right now, most birth plans don’t even list it as an option.

To help make cord blood donation a routine part of the birth plan, we created a Parent’s Guide to Cord Blood birth plan that gave parent’s a place to identify themselves as willing donors. We also created an open-source icon for doctors, doulas and midwives that could be added to existing the existing birth plans they provide to expecting parents.

TBD. Campaign just launched 4/30 - no results yet.