First person to be born via IVF was shown her own birth as a child to explain truth
Louise Joy Brown, the world's first person to be born via IVF, has revealed the unique way her parents explained her birth.
Louise's story is currently featured in Netflix's new film Joy, which details the groundbreaking true story of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) as well as the sacrifices made by the three pioneers who dedicated themselves to overcoming a huge milestone in fertility.
Now referred to as one of 'the most remarkable medical breakthroughs of the 20th Century', it's believed that around 10 million people are alive today due to the creation of IVF. Statistics published by Yale also add that over 500,000 babies are born every year through the treatment.
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Yet prior to Louise's birth there was a lot of public outrage against IVF, with Joy highlighting the decade-long journey Patrick Steptoe, Robert Edwards, and Jean Purdy (played by Bill Nighy, James Norton and Thomasin McKenzie in the film) faced to recognise their goal.
After 10 years and several failed attempts, Louise was born at Oldham Hospital via c-section late at night on 25 July 1978.
The birth was filmed, with Louise explaining this had been requested by the government in order to 'prove' her mother Lesley didn't have any fallopian tubes and therefore couldn't have conceived naturally.
"After I was born and taken away you see Patrick going into my mum's womb and it and he said 'you can see there are no fallopian tubes in here' which kind of then proved what he was saying was actually true," Louise tells LADbible, following the film's premiere on Netflix.
The film would also prove useful to Louise's parents while she was growing up, as it gave them a way to explain the unique circumstances of her existence from a young age.
"I was shown the video when I was four years old," Louise, who is now a mother-of-two herself, explained. "That was how mum and dad explained that I was a bit different before I went to school.
"They sat me down and showed me the video and said I was a little bit different the way I was born to everybody else."
The title of the 'world's first IVF birth' was something which remained a large part of the 46-year-old's life growing up, as she'd often witness her parents talking about the topic in interviews.
"When you're younger, you don't want to talk about your dad's sperm and things like that. It can be quite embarrassing," she recalled.
"I mean, I've talked about dad's sperm most all my life... but when you're younger it can be a little bit embarrassing."
Louise also revealed the unique way she remembers Purdy, who passed away at just 39 years old from cancer and had her contributions to IVF largely ignored over the years, revealing that she remembers the embryologist as her 'very first babysitter'.
"I've always said Jean was my very first babysitter, because Jean was the one that actually sat there at night and watched all the cells dividing while Patrick was at his wife's birthday party," she explained.
"Jean was there then to call Patrick back in to put the egg back into my mum. So Jean was basically my very first babysitter."
Brenna Cooper