About Us
What is this blog about?
First, welcome to our blog for expecting couples! We’re here to help you and your partner navigate through those challenging topics often induced by pregnancy. You’ll find that our topics will cover everything from “how to complain with impact when you’re not getting the support you need” to “how to explain your baby blues”. The key to every resolution is successful communication and Laurie is here to help.
What is this blog NOT about?
This is not a blog about or whether or not you should bank your baby’s cord blood. It’s not about whether or not to breast feed. It’s not about whether or not to go back to work after pregnancy. Laurie will not advise you as to how to make these challenging decisions. But instead, she will help you to communicate through the decision making process in a meaningful way to make the most of your discussions. And it’s our hope, that through the shared conversation a blog provides, we will all help one another in the process.
Who are we?
This site is a collaboration between Laurie Puhn & ViaCord. The author is Laurie Puhn, a Relationship Communications Expert as well as a Harvard-trained Family Attorney and Mediator, based in New York, NY. Publishing the blog is ViaCord, a cord blood banking company based in Cambridge, MA.
Who is Laurie Puhn?
Laurie is smart, sincere, and down-to-earth. She is a communications expert who provides practical advice and isn’t afraid to share her own personal experiences. She is an author of the best seller, Instant Persuasion: How To Change Your Words To Change Your Life, and makes frequent guest appearances on Fox News Channel, Good Day NY, CNN, and Weekend Today Show. (Visit http://www.lauriepuhn.com for a complete bio.)
Laurie is also a wife of 3 years and a mom to her one and a half year old son. And to be completely transparent, you should know she’s a ViaCord Mom too. But most importantly, she’s ViaCord’s go-to person for this blog and will be the one driving the conversation. You’ll be in good hands with Laurie.
Who is ViaCord?
ViaCord was established in 1993 to give expectant parents an opportunity to bank their children’s cord blood with comfort and security. Prior to launching our cord blood banking service, ViaCord conducted extensive research and validation studies to set high standards regarding the collection, processing, and storage of cord blood. ViaCord is part of PerkinElmer, a a global leader dedicated to improving the health and safety of people and their environment. Both ViaCord and PerkinElmer share the same goal – to help save lives.
We do much more than simply preserve cord blood. We are involved in developing potential new uses for cord blood. Our mission to support science, technology, and medical treatments using cord blood stem cells affirms our commitment to increase the value of cord blood to families.
Why publish a blog about the communication challenges for expecting couples?
We started with this basic premise… deciding whether or not to bank your baby’s cord blood is just one decision, in a long list of important decisions couples need to make while expecting. We get it. We’re parents too. And we know that many of these decisions, from circumcision to baby names, can be areas of friction for couples. So, we decided to create a forum to help expecting parents troubleshoot these conflicts and with the guidance of Laurie’s infinite wisdom, a blog was born.
How will this work?
Our blog only works if there is a two-way dialogue. We encourage you to leave comments, ask questions, and share your own experiences. We want these conversations to be meaningful. We respectfully ask that you keep your comments relevant to the subjects covered and don’t post comments that are inappropriate or offensive. No profanity or shameless plugs, please. At this time we will review all posts before they are published and we may need to edit some from time to time. We expect to receive a mix of responses and are committed to publishing both positive and negative comments. If you think Laurie’s advice is “hubbub” or cord blood banking is “hocus pocus”, we won’t take it personally. Our objective isn’t to sanitize the discussions. This is our first blog and we are admittedly playing it conservatively. We appreciate your understanding while our training wheels are in tact. Click here for a complete list of do’s and don’ts.
What else?
Please remember ViaCord’s expertise is in cord blood banking and research, not relationship communications, and we’re more than happy to talk to you about the benefits of cord blood stem cell preservation. This site isn’t the best forum for that. Any questions you have about cord blood banking should be directed to our company site at www.viacord.com or our ViaCord blog at blog.viacord.com.
