Cord Blood Awareness Month 2026: The Past, Present, and Future of Cord Blood Stem Cells

Key details

• A month to raise awareness: Every July, Cord Blood Awareness Month encourages expecting parents to think about storing or donating the stem cells in their baby’s umbilical cord, which are otherwise discarded at birth. [1]
• A proven treatment: Cord blood has been used in transplant medicine since 1988 and now helps treat around 80 conditions, with more than 40,000 transplants carried out worldwide. [2][3]
• A lifeline for hard-to-match patients: Because cord blood does not need to be matched as closely as an adult donation, it widens access to transplants, especially for patients from minority-ethnic and mixed backgrounds. [5]
• A regenerative future: Cord blood is now being studied in regenerative medicine, including early-stage trials for conditions such as cerebral palsy and preterm brain injury. [6][7]

What is Cord Blood Awareness Month?

Every July, Cord Blood Awareness Month highlights one of the most remarkable resources in modern medicine, and a simple fact that many parents are unaware of: the blood left in the umbilical cord and placenta after birth is rich in stem cells, and in most cases it is simply thrown away. [1]

The aim of the month is to help expecting parents understand what cord blood is, what it can already do, and why the moment of birth is the only chance to collect it. In the UK, only a small fraction of cord blood is ever banked, whether privately or through the NHS Cord Blood Bank and charities such as Anthony Nolan. [1][9]

What is cord blood, and why is it special?

Cord blood is the blood that remains in the umbilical cord and placenta after a baby is born. It is a rich source of haematopoietic stem cells, the cells that build and renew the entire blood and immune system. These are the same type of stem cell found in bone marrow, but they are younger, quicker and easier to collect, and can be cryogenically stored, ready for later use. [2]

One of cord blood’s most valuable qualities is that its stem cells are immature, so they often don’t need to match a patient as closely as cells from an adult donor. That makes cord blood an important option for people who struggle to find a fully matched donor, particularly patients from Black, Asian, mixed and other minority-ethnic backgrounds, who are under-represented on adult donor registers. Thanks in part to cord blood, around 95% of patients from a minority-ethnic background and 97% of those from a white Northern European background can now find a suitable source of stem cells for a transplant in the UK. [5]

The history of cord blood in medicine

Cord blood’s medical exploration began in earnest in the 1970s, when scientists recognised that it contained the same blood-forming stem cells used in bone marrow transplants. The turning point came in 1988, when Professor Eliane Gluckman and her team in Paris performed the world’s first cord blood transplant on Matt Farrow, a five-year-old boy with Fanconi anaemia, a rare and life-threatening blood disorder, using cord blood collected from his newborn sister. [2][4] The transplant worked, and Matt remains healthy decades later.

Cord blood soon proved to have real advantages over bone marrow. It is quicker to access, carries a lower risk of graft-versus-host disease (a serious complication in which donor cells attack the recipient’s body), and does not need to be as closely matched to the patient. [2] These qualities helped cord blood become an established part of transplant medicine.

The present: what cord blood treats today

Today, a cord blood transplant from a donor is a recognised treatment for around 80 conditions. [2] These include blood cancers such as leukaemia and lymphoma, inherited blood disorders such as sickle cell disease and thalassaemia, bone marrow failure, and a range of immune and metabolic conditions. More than 40,000 cord blood transplants have now been performed worldwide, and public registries hold hundreds of thousands of banked units ready for patients in need. [3]

The future: cord blood and regenerative medicine

Some of the most exciting uses for cord blood are still being researched. Regenerative medicine aims to repair, replace, or restore damaged tissue rather than simply manage disease, and cord blood sits at the centre of that effort.

One of the most closely watched areas is brain injury in children. A 2025 meta-analysis in the journal Pediatrics, which pooled individual data from 11 studies, found that children with cerebral palsy who received a cord blood infusion showed greater improvement in motor function than those who didn’t, at both six and twelve months, with higher cell doses producing bigger gains and the clearest benefit in younger children. [6] Most of these studies used the child’s own cord blood.

Cord blood is also being investigated to protect the brains of babies born too soon. In Australia, researchers have shown that infusing extremely premature babies with cells from their own cord blood is feasible and well tolerated, and trials are now testing donated cord blood as well, since it can be difficult to collect enough from a tiny preterm baby’s own cord. [7][8]

This momentum has carried into 2026. Around the world, cord blood and the cells derived from it are moving through clinical trials for a widening range of conditions, from brain injury to joint and tissue repair.

What this means for expecting parents

For families, Cord Blood Awareness Month is a reminder that cord blood can only be collected once, in the minutes after birth. Storing it does not guarantee that the cells will ever be needed, or that they will be suitable for a particular therapy. What it does is preserve the option, ensuring a matched, personal sample is available should it ever be required and clinically appropriate.

That option looks more valuable with each passing year, as cord blood moves from a well-established transplant treatment into a fast-growing field of regenerative research. Preserving a baby’s cord blood at birth helps keep your baby’s options open.

To learn more about umbilical cord stem cells and how you can preserve them, fill in the form below to request your free welcome pack.

References

[1] Anthony Nolan. “Umbilical Cord FAQs.” anthonynolan.org

[2] Kurtzberg J. A History of Cord Blood Banking and Transplantation. Stem Cells Transl Med. 2017 May;6(5):1309-1311. doi: 10.1002/sctm.17-0075. PMID: 28456005; PMCID: PMC5442723. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

[3] World Marrow Donor Association. “Cord Blood: A Vital Resource for Stem Cell Transplantation.” wmda.info

[4] Gluckman, E., Broxmeyer, H. A., Auerbach, A. D., Friedman, H. S., Douglas, G. W., Devergie, A., Esperou, H., Thierry, D., Socie, G., & Lehn, P. (1989). Hematopoietic reconstitution in a patient with Fanconi’s anemia by means of umbilical-cord blood from an HLA-identical sibling. The New England Journal of Medicine, 321(17), 1174–1178. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJM198910263211707

[5] Anthony Nolan (2026). “How does ethnicity affect your likelihood of finding a match?” anthonynolan.org

[6] Finch-Edmondson, M., Paton, M. C. B., Webb, A., Reza Ashrafi, M., Blatch-Williams, R. K., Cox, C. S., Crompton, K., Griffin, A. R., Kim, M., Kosmach, S., Kurtzberg, J., Nouri, M., Ri Suh, M., Sun, J., Zarrabi, M., & Novak, I. (2025). Cord Blood Treatment for Children With Cerebral Palsy: Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis. Pediatrics, 155(5), e2024068999. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2024-068999

[7] Zhou L, McDonald CA, Yawno T, Razak A, Connelly K, Novak I, Miller SL, Jenkin G, Malhotra A. Feasibility and safety of autologous cord blood derived cell administration in extremely preterm infants: a single-centre, open-label, single-arm, phase I trial (CORD-SaFe study). EBioMedicine. 2025 Jan;111:105492. doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2024.105492. Epub 2024 Dec 13. PMID: 39674685; PMCID: PMC11731592. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

[8] Hudson Institute of Medical Research. “Can cord-blood stem cells prevent brain damage in preterm babies?” (2026) hudson.org.au

[9] NHS Blood and Transplant. “Cord blood donation.” nhsbt.nhs.uk