The first IVF baby celebrates her 30th birthday along with the treatmentDiscuss first ivf baby turns 30 on our forums, right now! Or, post a comment below.The first person born using IVF treatment has celebrated her 30th birthday.
Louise Brown had a party in the Bourn Hall fertility clinic in Cambridgeshire, along with the families of 30 children, one for each year since the treatment was first successful in 1978.
Now a mother too, Louise told the BBC: "It's quite scary to think I'm the first of them all, but it's also a nice feeling that perhaps if I hadn't been born then all those people wouldn't be here, and IVF has helped so many couples."
|  |
The clinic was set up by Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards, the men who pioneered the treatment.
Patrick Steptoe died in 1988, but Professor Edwards was present and told the BBC how he wished that IVF was available to more couples.
IVF stands for In-Vitro Fertilisation and is one of the many assisted conception techniques for people having difficulty conceiving.
Around one in seven couples in the UK face delays in getting pregnant, and about six thousand babies are born using the treatment a year.
The best age range for the treatment is 23 to 39 years-old, according to The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), and the treatment has an average success rate of 15 per cent.
Not yet a member? Join thousands of other parents and parents-to-be and Sign Up Here.