World’s first test tube baby Louise Brown celebrates 46th birthday

46 years ago, on 25 July 1978, a baby unlike any other was born.

It was almost midnight, but the usually quiet town of Oldham in Lancashire, England, was awash with reporters from around the globe, who’d come to witness the arrival of the world’s first test tube baby.

Named Louise Joy Brown, she was the first person born after being conceived outside of a human body, through in vitro fertilization (IVF).

She was delivered by Caesarean section, weighing 2.6 kg (5 lb 12 oz).

Her parents had tried to conceive naturally for nine years but were unsuccessful due to her mother Lesley’s blocked fallopian tubes.

Although the media referred to her as a test tube baby, Louise’s conception actually took place in a Petri dish, on 10 November 1977.

Her embryo was incubated in a glass desiccator (a small jar which kept the Petri dish moisture-free) before being transferred into Lesley’s womb.

The procedure was developed by British scientists Robert Edwards, Patrick Steptoe and Jean Purdy.

Edwards had first fertilized an egg outside the womb nine years prior; over the next decade he and Steptoe attempted implantation in 282 women, but none gave birth to a live baby.

Doctors filmed Louise’s birth in order to capture her mother’s damaged fallopian tubes, proving to the public that it was not a hoax.

Louise told TIME in 2018: “My parents didn’t have a choice about making it public. If they didn’t, they would have had people asking ‘Why can’t we see her? What’s wrong with her?'

“Had there been anything at all wrong with me, it would have been the end of IVF.”

The world’s second test tube baby was born 67 days after Louise, in India. Named Durga, she was conceived in vitro using a technique developed independently by physician Subhash Mukherjee.

Despite opposition from some religious groups, the number of women undergoing IVF gradually increased over the following years, and it’s estimated that over eight million IVF babies have been born to date.

Louise with Spain's first test tube baby Victoria Anna Perea

The first successful American birth occurred in 1981, and the world’s 40th IVF baby, born in 1982, was Louise’s sister Natalie.

17 years later, Natalie had her own baby (conceived naturally), becoming the first person born through IVF to do so.

Louise got married in 2004 and went on to have two sons.

She wrote a book in 2015 titled My Life as the World's First Test-Tube Baby, and she is now a global IVF advocate and keynote speaker.

“I’ve seen IVF grow from just me in a small room in Oldham with my mum and dad, to a world-changing procedure,” she wrote in a 2018 article for The Independent.

“To the men and women going through IVF I say, ‘Never give up hope.’

“To the doctors and embryologists I say, ‘Keep up the good work.’

“And to all those involved in getting IVF to this stage I say, ‘Thank you for all you have done on behalf of the millions of babies’.”

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