Can babies really be born in test-tubes?

We hear a lot about ‘test-tube’ babies. These babies are not, in fact, born in a test-tube, but they do begin life in one.

Medicine can sometimes help people who cannot have children. Normally, a new life begins in the mother’s womb when a sperm cell from the father fertilizes an egg cell from the mother. The two cells fuse together into one human cell, and this cell begins to grow into a baby.

If normal fertilization does not occur, doctors can now carry out fertilization outside the mother’s body. They take the cells and unite them in suitable equipment, which is popularly called a test-tube. The fertilized cell is then placed in the mother’s womb to grow normally.

The first ‘test-tube’ baby was Louise Brown, who was born perfectly healthy and normal in Britain in 1978. Man more such babies have been born since then.