Candace-When Aldous Huxley wrote and published A Brave New World in 1932, do you think Robert Edwards read this book? Better yet, do you think he even considered this as non-fiction? (It was a science fiction novel based on an altered future reality where all people were born by artificial means of reproductive technology, worked in a crazy tyrannical habitat, and were paid with a drug called Soma.) Really though? Create life outside of the human body? No way, not possible, it will never happen. The whole Soma-experience sounds interesting but not exactly the thing for us. What is next, that sparkly high-tech teleportation device from Star Trek? – Chris interjection, they have actually been able to ‘teleport’ really small bits of matter- Enter Dr. Robert Edwards into the picture … known as a feisty British embryologist who fundamentally changed the lives of millions (5 million babies) roughly. Because of him and his sidekick Dr. Patrick Steptoe, couples who have never had the chance of becoming parents are able to have dream of a biological child via In-Vitro Fertilization, aka IVF. He was the architect of the process of fertilizing an egg outside of the womb and putting it back in to create life. The first miracle baby was born from this new hope-inspiring breakthrough, was Louise Joy Brown, on July 25th 1978.
There is a lot of light shed on Louise, the first IVF baby, but can you imagine being her mother? You already feel like a science project gone wrong during an IVF cycle. 30+ years ago there was this unknown shot in the dark, a small chance that this hopeful mother was willing to take. It must have been one of those WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?? kinda moments. I imagine her conversation with Dr. Edwards was a little like this “Mrs. Brown, we are going to do some crazy shit to your hormones, deem you the first and original deity of the stirrups, remove your eggs with some medieval torture device looking tools, and then we will play some Sinatra in a lab for a few days and put back the results. Please try to relax and enjoy the process”. -Side thought, I wonder what Mr. Ultrasound Wand looked like in the late 70’s. Remember how big calculators were? I shutter at the thought.
For some reason the term “test-tube baby” came on the scene. PS, for those “non-infertiles” out there this is not an accurate term to use. I will let the scientist handle this one .. Chris care to enlighten us on this subject?
Chris- As a proud owner of test-tubes and another unique bit of apparatus, the petri dish, I can only speculate as to why the term “test-tube baby” would be offensive to all of us in the infertility trenches. First, it is not accurate. The fertilization and cell division/embryo growth happens in a petri dish. The problem with this though, is the petri dish does not look as ‘lab-like’ as a test tube does. If you have ever watched The Muppet’s (and if you haven’t go do it now!) you will know that one of my hero’s Prof. Bunson Honeydew and his lab assistant Beaker, never gave into a petri dish. There will be all sorts of bubbling, boiling, smoky things in their lab, but a petri dish is never one of them. Second, there is opposition to IVF from a number of different factions in society. There are claims that it is playing God, that it is not natural and blah blah blah you shouldn’t do it. So, I suppose for those of us pursuing family building with IVF, called the result of a successful delivery (a true miracle and something to be overjoyed about) a “test-tube baby” re-emphasizes the fact that this child was technically conceived by artificial means. How about we call these children “miracle children,” “answered prayers,” or maybe just children instead of trying to identify why they would be considered different that children born the “normal way”. And Chris steps off his soap box…
So to you, Sir Robert Edwards (kudos on getting knighted by the way. Do they do that for blogging? Sorry, digression), we remember you, your amazing vision, and ability to pioneer a technique that has given hope to so many people and answered so many prayers! We hope to have another Sir Edward come onto the field and close the loop on those out there with the unexplained IVF failures very soon.
