The Incredible Story Of Louise Brown - The World's First Test Tube Baby

How many people can claim that they were world famous only a few hours after they were born? Unless they are the likes of Blue Ivy and North West, the answer to that is a select few. Louise Brown is one such person.

On July 25, 1978, Louise Brown became the first every baby to born as a result of IVF to Lesley and John Brown, a young couple from Bristol who had been unable to conceive naturally for nine years.

After growing increasingly frustrated with their infertility, Lesley and John Brown were referred to Dr. Patrick Steptoe, a gynecologist at Oldham General Hospital who had been working alongside Dr. Robert Edwards, a physiologist at Cambridge University to find an alternative solution for conception since 1966.

By 1977 Dr. Steptoe and Dr. Edwards had figured out a way to fertilise an egg outside a woman's body but still had not figured out how to implant the fertilised egg back into the uterus. All of the pregnancies resulting from their experiments lasted only a few short weeks until Lesley Brown came into the picture.

On November 10, 1977, underwent the IVF procedure. Using a long, slender, self-lit probe called a "laparoscope," Dr. Steptoe took an egg from one of Lesley Brown's ovaries and mixed it with John's sperm. The fertilised embryo was placed in a special solution to nurture it. The implanted the embryo back into Lesley's uterus after 2 and a half days.

Unlike the other failed pregnancies which lasted only a few weeks, Lesley continued to carry her fetus successfully week after week with no apparent problems whatsoever. The world began talking about the first miracle baby.

At 11:47 p.m. on July 25, 1978, a five-pound 12-ounce baby girl was born. She was named Louise Brown and grew up to be a perfectly healthy woman who today has a baby that she conceived naturally!