Baby girl born from embryo frozen 24 years ago
A 26-year-old American woman has given birth to a baby that grew from an embryo frozen 24 years earlier.
Tina Gibson, of east Tennessee, was 25 when she gave birth to Emma Gibson in November with husband Benjamin.
Emma grew from an embryo that was originally frozen on 14 October 1992.
“If the baby was born when it was supposed to born, we could have been best friends,” Tina Gibson told NBC News.
"Emma is such a sweet miracle," her father, Benjamin Gibson, said in a news release. "I think she looks pretty perfect to have been frozen all those years ago."
The embryo was transferred into Tina’s uterus by the National Embryo Donation Center, a faith-based organization in Tennessee.
“We’re just so thankful and blessed. She’s a precious Christmas gift from the lord,” Gibson said, according to CNN. “We’re just so grateful.”
After a couple goes through IVF treatment there are sometimes leftover embryos, which are frozen for potential later use.
The National Embryo Donation Center encourages people to donate those embryos to other couples who are unable to conceive.
The NEDC’s Dr Jeffrey Keenan, who oversaw the embryo transfer, said it may be a record length between the donating of an embryo and the delivery of a child.
“We had our medical library, which is very good at finding things, look to see if they could find anything older than that and they could not,” Keenan told NBC News.
“But it is kind of neat that this embryo was conceived just a year or so before the mother was.”
The organisation hopes couples who have leftover embryos will consider this as an option for those who want to become parents.