World's first test tube baby expecting child

Published on 10/07/2006 13:02

THE world's first test tube baby, Louise Brown, has fallen pregnant.

Louise, 27, who married former bank security officer Wesley Mullinder, 36, two years ago, is due to give birth in January. The former postal worker from Bristol said it was a "dream come true".

The couple started trying for a child after their marriage in September 2004.

Her husband reportedly said: "We are overjoyed that Louise is expecting. We are so excited about becoming parents, and I know that Louise will make a fantastic mother."

Louise's birth on July 25, 1978, created headlines throughout the world after a decade of research on finding ways to fertilise human eggs outside the body.

She was born by Caesarean section at the Royal Oldham Hospital thanks to the efforts of Dr Robert Edwards, who jointly invented the IVF technique that led to her birth, and the late Dr Patrick Steptoe, a gynaecologist at the hospital.