Wednesday, July 23, 2008

World's first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, was born 30 years ago...


The birth of Louise Brown, the world's first IVF baby, hit headlines around the globe three decades ago -- but the married mother-of-one wants to keep her 30th birthday Friday low-key by contrast.

Brown -- who lives in Bristol, south-west England, with husband Wesley Mullinder and 18-month-old son Cameron, working as a shipping company administrator -- remains reluctantly in the public eye despite her modest lifestyle.

Although her birth opened the door for millions of infertile couples worldwide to give birth to IVF (in vitro fertilisation) or test tube babies, Brown has no big plans to celebrate the landmark date.

"I'm not really thinking of it as my 30th," she said. "I'm just carrying on as if this is a normal birthday.

"I might go out with my friends or I might have a meal with the family. I'm planning on having a quiet one."

Louise Joy Brown was born on July 25, 1978 at Oldham and District General Hospital in north-west England by Caesarean section, weighing five pounds 12 ounces (2.61 kilograms).

Her parents, Lesley and John, had been trying to have children for nine years but could not because Lesley Brown's fallopian tubes were blocked.

The couple's breakthrough came when they heard about research being carried out by Cambridge University physiologist Robert Edwards and gynaecologist Patrick Steptoe and signed up with them for fertility treatment.  More...

See also: WTF! 12 babies die from vaccine trials...

And this: Desiring a son, 70-year old Indian woman gives birth to twins...  

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