“Test-tube baby” Louise Brown: “Think positive and never give up!”

desire to have children
“Test-tube baby” Louise Brown says: “Think positive and never give up!”

The British Louise Brown, 44, went down in history as the “test tube baby”, she was the first person to be conceived in a laboratory. Today she is committed to helping people who do not want to have children. a conversation

Louise Brown, mother of two naturally conceived boys, is committed to making fertility treatments easier to access, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), which gave her life. Most recently, she gave the opening speech at the “Making fertility accessible” event of the Berlin start-up Fertilly. We wanted to know from her: What is life like as the first person to be conceived in a laboratory, and what advice does she give to people with an unfulfilled desire to have children?

BRIGITTE: In 1978 you became world famous as a “test tube baby”. Her birth was a sensation, but also caused uncertainty and even horror. Have you experienced stigma for being conceived in the lab?

Louise Brown: No, I actually had no problems. As a child I was sometimes asked: Why do they call you a test tube baby, were you in a test tube? Or: Did you climb out of a retort or what? I always said: no, it was a petri dish, I have no idea why they say “retort”. But I didn’t take that to heart.

When did you find out that you owe your life to artificial insemination?

That was when I was four, before I started school. Mom and Dad showed me the video of my birth, which is pretty gruesome and bloody, but I hardly took any notice. Then they told me that Patrick and Bob (the two fertility doctors) helped them conceive me. They did not give any more details.

They proved to the world that an IVF child is just a normal person. burden or luck?

As a teenager, I found that a little creepy. Sometimes I lay in bed and thought: people on the other side of the world know everything about me, but I know nothing about them. Today I’m just proud, and I hope Mom, Dad, Bob, and Patrick would be proud too if they knew that I help those who are involuntarily childless. I think they would.

Six million IVF children later, what drives you to advocate for people who cannot have children naturally?

When my mother was alive we traveled to Bulgaria and after that the government started funding IVF treatments. That was the first time I realized: It helped that I was there! The next time we went to Bulgaria they had already built a fertility clinic and I was shown around. In the hallway we met a mother who had just given birth to her child and because there were photographers present, she asked the doctor who I am. After being told, she hugged me and said thank you. That brought me to tears. Even if someone approaches me on the street, which often happens to me in England, it’s always positive, people say thank you. Then I feel that this is what I should do. And I like helping and giving back to the system I was born out of.

Do you have any advice for people who are at risk of breaking down over their desire to have children?

When I think back to my mother: she never gave up. And then it worked, after nine long years. So my advice is: think positive and never give up.

The interview first appeared on Eltern.de

Bridget