IVF
The first in vitro - meaning 'in glass' - fertilisation (IVF) baby was Louise Brown, born in the UK in 1978. Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe pioneered the IVF technique, which has since helped over 30,000 couples in the UK to have babies. Doctors remove eggs from the woman's body and fertilise them with sperm in the laboratory - hence the term 'test-tube baby'. Once the fertilised egg has divided a few times, the resulting tiny cluster of cells is put into the mother's womb to continue developing.
