December 28th In History: First IVF Birth In The US

JAKARTA - On December 28, 1981, today, 39 years ago, the first IVF in the United States (US) was born. The baby girl is named Elizabeth Jordan Carr.

The in-vitro fertilized baby was born in Norfolk, Virginia. He was considered a miracle at that time, which is the birth of IVF today is a common occurrence.

In-vitro fertilization (IVF) is a process in which a doctor fertilizes an egg outside the woman's body and implants the developing embryo in the uterus. In this way, women with damaged or missing fallopian tubes, which carry the fertilized egg from the ovaries to the uterus, can become pregnant.

Launching History, Monday December 28, doctors successfully performed the first successful in-vitro fertilization of rabbits in 1959. The first human test tube baby was born in England in 1978. One of the physicians in charge, Doctor Robert Edwards, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2010.

The success of an IVF pregnancy led the pair of doctors Howard and Georgeanna Jones to open an IVF clinic at Eastern Virginia Medical School in 1980. "I thought it was a day full of hope," said Howard Jones after Carr and his mother were declared in perfect condition. James cites that around 600,000 US women can give birth thanks to the procedure.

IVF pregnancy is not without criticism. Much of the medical community is cautious about "playing God." IVF drew criticism from figures such as Jerry Falwell and others through the Moral Majority, a socially conservative movement in the early 1980s. The Roman Catholic Church opposes IVF on the grounds that it separates marital sex from the act of conception.

Nonetheless, the procedure has been refined over the decades and is now quite common, giving an estimated total of 5 million births in the 2012 study. It is estimated that IVF now accounts for more than one percent of US births each year.

Elizabeth managed to grow healthy. He attended Oakmont Regional High School where he graduated in 2000, and lived a normal life like most people.

He grew up to be an active teenager. Starting from playing hockey, choir, drama club, to often camping in the summer. The only thing that bothered him was when many journalists wanted to know the latest news about him.

“I really had to step in because the camera crew wanted to come to the dance with me and I said no, they can't come to the dance but they can take photos of me getting ready. I'm very vocal about maintaining my privacy, "said Elizabeth at a 2019 interview.

Sometimes, Elizabeth has to skip school to attend infertility conferences around the world. "I went to conferences when I was in middle school to talk," he said.

Because she often travels, Elizabeth's friends often consider her on vacation. "But I just got out of school. For kids who know me around here, they don't know. They must have thought I was on a trip or on vacation," he added.

After graduating high school, Elizabeth attended Simmons College in Boston where she majored in journalism. During his sophomore year in college, he did an internship at the Boston Globe.

He then studied at the Poynter Institute for Journalism in St. Petersburg. Petersburg, Florida, for a year, was a journalist in Maine, married and then returned to the Boston Globe. While at the Boston Globe and expecting her first child, Elizabeth realized that the event was likely to make big news, namely the child born of the first IVF in the US.

"I told Globe, 'I knew this was going to be a story. But I'm a writer and I'm going to write it myself," said Elizabeth.

“My editor was very patient and let me do that. I kind of control the way information comes out, so people don't know I'm pregnant until I write a story about my pregnancy, "she concluded.