Contact: Mark Mellinger, 865-777-2013 ext 4, mmellinger@baby4me.net 

KNOXVILLE, Tenn., Jan. 18, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- The National Embryo Donation Center, along with our donation and adoption families, is celebrating unprecedented success after compiling the latest statistics from our embryo adoption program.

61.5 percent of the Knoxville-based NEDC's frozen embryo transfers (FETs) in 2014 resulted in pregnancies, and 53.8 percent resulted in births. Those numbers are considerably higher than previously reported national averages for all clinics performing FETs. In 2013, the most recent year for which national numbers are available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 50.1 percent of donor FETs resulted in pregnancies and 40.2 percent resulted in births.

Final pregnancy and birth statistics always lag considerably behind the year the FETs were performed simply because the outcomes cannot all be measured and reported until the nine-month gestation process has been completed for each patient who achieves pregnancy.

"These numbers –the highest in our program's history- are really something to celebrate because they're not just statistics. They represent the tiniest of lives being rescued and welcomed into loving homes," said NEDC President and Medical Director Dr. Jeffrey Keenan. "We obviously do our best to optimize care whenever we perform embryo transfers. But as a Christian organization, I think the constant and fervent prayers of those leading and supporting the NEDC are also a huge reason for our unparalleled success."

Since opening in 2003, the NEDC has become the leading comprehensive non-profit embryo donation program in the U.S., with more pregnancies through embryo donation –roughly 550- than any other program. Its dual purpose is to protect the lives and dignity of frozen embryos that would not be used by their genetic parents and to help other infertile couples build the families they have longed for via donated embryos.

For more information, or to schedule interviews with Dr. Keenan or NEDC Lab Director Carol Sommerfelt, please contact Mark Mellinger at (865) 777-2013 ext. 4 or mmellinger@baby4me.net.