Forget 12-week scan. Now IVF parents can get conception film
MOST parents have the souvenir of a scan of their child in the womb at 12 weeks.
The must-have for IVF mums and dads these days, however, is a video and pictures right from the moment of conception.
The images are thanks to revolutionary technology that allows medics to record the microscopic miracle of life – from fertilisation to the division of cells, right through to the growth of an embryo.
Hundreds of parents are now the proud owners of these EmbryoScope images, which are also helping scientists learn more about the IVF process.
Sally and Stephen Morley are among them. The grainy grey and white picture on this page shows the first cell division in the creation of their IVF baby, Pixie.
A tiny camera, placed inside an incubator, films the reproduction process.
As well as allowing parents to watch back the moment the embryos form, the technology – developed in the US – also allows experts to select the best possible embryos based on how they form during the conception process. This narrows a mother’s chance of miscarrying.
The Morleys, from Walsall, had spent months trying to have children naturally before opting for IVF. Mrs Morley, 38, the head of a nursery, said: ‘I knew time was against
‘Patients are awestruck’
me being 36 when we started trying so when I failed to get pregnant each month I knew we should have fertility tests as soon as possible.’
While the couple were undergoing IVF, the EmbryoScope technology was introduced at the Midland Fertility Clinic, allowing them to be the first in their area to capture their child’s conception on camera.
In October 2013, the embryo was transferred into Mrs Morley’s womb and within two weeks she was told by doctors that the process had been successful. Now, nine months after Pixie’s birth, she is still able to re-watch the moment her daughter was conceived.
Experts have hailed the technology as one of the most important developments in IVF. Professor Simon Fishel, who is boss of Care Fertility, the first clinic in Britain to use the EmbryoScope, said: ‘We now know that embryos that do make babies and embryos that don’t make babies do different things. And to be able to see this in a time-matched movie and to be able to analyse it scientifically is absolutely wonderful science for us.’
Professor Fishel, who was part of the team that produced first testtube baby, Louise Brown, in 1978, said the EmbryoScope was revealing the secrets about what happens to embryos as they develop – and why it is that around 70 per cent of them do not actually make babies.
The videos were also an emotional milestone in the process of becoming a parent, Professor Fishel said.
‘The couple can see the process of fertilisation, see the cells divide, see the number of cells grow and see them produce an embryo… it is nothing short of observing the wonderful miracle of life.’
The video given to parents is a sped-up version of the process which occurs before the embryo develops. Professor Fishel said his patients were ‘awestruck’ when given the footage but that the clinic only gave parents the video once a mother had fallen pregnant.