Happy 30th Birthday in-vitro fertilization! That’s right, it’s a big b-day for anyone conceived via IVF, especially Louise Brown, the world’s first IVF baby. Her parents, Lesley and John, had tried for nine years to have a child (sounds like fun), when they heard about experimental fertility research being conducted at Cambridge University. Physiologist Robert Edwards and gynecologist Patrick Steptoe were pioneering the “test-tube” baby and the Brown’s volunteered to try the controversial method. Three decades later, they’re among many IVF success stories. Over the years, 115,000 babies have been born in the U.S. alone thanks to IVF and just this summer, the fertility miracle helped a 70-year old woman conceive in India! As for Louise, who works as a shipping company administrator, she is a mother herself, to a healthy 18-month-old boy, which she was able to conceive naturally. Her younger sister Natalie Brown is also a notable achievement — she was the first IVF baby to give birth and she too was able to conceive without medical aid. Needless to say, the Brown kids are so grateful to the groundbreaking scientists that they consider them to be their granddads. And thanks to them, now everyone can have eggs scrambled, sunny side up, and even fertilized! [AFP]
