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World`s first `test-tube` baby celebrates her 25th birthday
London, July 25: Louise Brown, the world`s first `test tube` baby, today celebrated her 25th birthday and the landmark fertility treatment that has led to an estimated one million babies throughout the world.
London, July 25: Louise Brown, the world's first "test tube" baby, today celebrated her 25th birthday and the landmark fertility treatment that has led to an estimated one million babies throughout the world.
Now working in a post office in Bristol, southwest England, Louise made history on July 25, 1978, when she became the first baby to be born as a result of In vitro Fertilisation (IVF).
"I used to think I was special," she said five years ago on her 20th birthday.
"I used to think about how I was conceived quite a lot when I was about 10 or 11, but I don't think about it at all now that so many other babies have been born in the same way," Louise said.
Her birth by caesarian at a hospital in Oldham, north England, stunned the medical world and marked the start of a revolution in fertility treatment.
"It was one of the great medical and scientific stories of the 20th century," said Allan Templeton, honorary secretary of the royal college of obstetricians and gynaecologists in London.
Louise's scientific "fathers", Cambridge University Professor Robert Edwards and gynaecologist Patrick Steptoe, worked at perfecting the IVF technique for 10 years before they achieved their first success.
In each case, the woman is given fertility drugs to help her produce more eggs. The eggs are surgically removed and fertilised in a laboratory. They are then placed in the womb, which has been prepared with hormone injections.
Bureau Report
"I used to think I was special," she said five years ago on her 20th birthday.
"I used to think about how I was conceived quite a lot when I was about 10 or 11, but I don't think about it at all now that so many other babies have been born in the same way," Louise said.
Her birth by caesarian at a hospital in Oldham, north England, stunned the medical world and marked the start of a revolution in fertility treatment.
"It was one of the great medical and scientific stories of the 20th century," said Allan Templeton, honorary secretary of the royal college of obstetricians and gynaecologists in London.
Louise's scientific "fathers", Cambridge University Professor Robert Edwards and gynaecologist Patrick Steptoe, worked at perfecting the IVF technique for 10 years before they achieved their first success.
In each case, the woman is given fertility drugs to help her produce more eggs. The eggs are surgically removed and fertilised in a laboratory. They are then placed in the womb, which has been prepared with hormone injections.
Bureau Report