On fertile ground: The babymakers at Glasgow's Nuffield Hospital

At least one in six people are likely to have fertility problems and may have to look for medical help if they want children of their own.

• IVF Lead Embryologist Anne Henderson in her Lab at the Nuffield Hospital

THE DOCTOR

LOOKING over a framed collage of baby photos on a wall at Glasgow's Nuffield Hospital, Dr Bobby Low becomes animated. "Ooh those two nearly wrecked the hospital when they came to visit," he chuckled, pointing at a pair of toddler twins.

"And that's the sister of these other two," he adds pointing to another couple of pictures. "I made the whole family."

Although genetically none of the babies are his, he looks over their photos like a proud grandfather. As they grow and come back to visit, many of the children created with help from the assisted conception unit at the Glasgow Nuffield Hospital call Dr Low "Uncle Bobby".

There have been almost 4,000 babies born with help from Uncle Bobby and his team at the Nuffield. And every baby has made its mark on the man dubbed Scotland's Grandfather of Fertility.

He recalls a meeting of IVF experts a few years ago, where he stood up to speak: "I said, 'I think I can speak as one of the grandfathers of fertility…' And from the front row, Prof Robert Winston shouted out, 'You're the great-grandfather!'

"I am a grandfather, but not a great-grandfather. But in Scottish terms, I suppose I am the most senior working in the field."

Dr Low has three children and five grandchildren of his own and has been involved in the management of infertility cases for more than 40 years.

He's worked at Stobhill and Glasgow Royal Maternity hospitals and over the years he's helped deliver around 25,000 babies – in both the public and private healthcare sectors – and helped create thousands by setting up the assisted conception unit at the Glasgow Nuffield Hospital, in 1985.

There are a range of services, from in vitro fertilisation (IVF) – where eggs are collected, fertilised and then the embryo is transferred back into the woman – through intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), an IVF technique where a single sperm is injected directly into an egg, to intra-uterine insemination (IUI), which involves inserting sperm into the uterus.

"It's a great buzz. I feel very chuffed when a baby is born. Every time is special," he says. "A lot of the couples we help then come back wanting another child and I say, 'Focus on the one you've got, that's a miracle. If we get another it's a bonus'.

"But I wouldn't call myself a miracle worker, it's technology."

There are countless boys out there named Robert, Bobby and Roberto after Dr Low as well as girls called Bobbi.

"In the old days when I was doing maternity, it wasn't a question of you getting a baby, but that you were getting a Bobby Low Baby," he laughed.He smiles when he recounts a tale of how when one proud dad showing off his newborn to a friend was asked what it was, rather than saying a boy or a girl, replied, "It's a Bobby Low Baby". There are thousands of BLBs, as Dr Low calls them, out there.

In November 2007 Dr Low was guest of honour at a birthday party held for the Nuffield ACS unit where Louise Marshall, the first Nuffield IVF baby, celebrated her 21st with Bobby, along with many others helped into the world by the unit.

Dr Low, who is from Bearsden, is now 71 but has no intention of retiring. "What would I do? My golf wouldn't improve if I retired," he says. He's been married to second wife Eileen, 56, for 21 years, and she manages his private practice.

Parents and staff are devoted to him. At his 70th birthday party, at a rugby club last year, his Nuffield nurses donned pink sashes reading 'Bobby's Girl' and got the DJ to play the 1960s classic so they could sing along to it in his honour.

His pioneering work has helped thousands, but he hasn't done it alone. He says: "It's a team effort and I'm lucky to have very senior colleagues in my team with Dr David Conway and Dr Mike Haxton who each have more than 20 years' experience."

He's become known for 'the Bobby Low huddle' which he carries out following an embryo transfer. He grasps hands with the woman, her partner and nurse and says, "I just want to wish you well. This is the Bobby Low huddle".

Many couples are reportedly moved to tears with the emotion of the moment. Luckily, many go on to have healthy babies, but it obviously pains Dr Low that there isn't always a positive outcome to his work, and he admits to having cried alongside disappointed couples.

"If there's any chance, we have to help them. But we can only try," he says. He adds he's sure advances in the field will make success even more probable in the future.

Dr Low is the son of a GP and was a classmate and close friend of Donald Dewar at Glasgow Academy, before we went to the University of Glasgow. He delivered his first baby when he was a medical student in 1963. It seems he was destined to go on to specialise in obstetrics and gynaecology."I love looking after pregnant ladies and I love making you guys better," he says, before acknowledging that being a woman experiencing pregnancy is not easy. "I wouldn't want to come back as one of you though!"

His career led him into pioneering work into the conditions endometriosis and pre-eclampsia. He also served as a volunteer in the Royal Army Medical Corps in the 1970s and 1980s where he delivered babies all over the world, before retiring as Lieutenant Colonel in charge of the surgical division.

The world's first IVF baby, Louise Brown, had been born in England in 1978 owing to groundbreaking work by Professor Bob Edwards and his colleague, Dr Patrick Steptoe. But help for parents in Scotland was limited, so Dr Low began fundraising to launch an IVF clinic at the Nuffield, which he opened in 1985.

Before then, couples needing IVF would have to travel south, as the only other Scottish unit, in Dundee, was heavily oversubscribed.

"It was so rare in the early days, and hush-hush back then. Now there are about two million babies out there born from IVF in the past 25 to 30 years," he says. "It's a speciality which is constantly refined. We can do something this year that we couldn't do last."

THE NURSE

KAREN MCCARTNEY has often delivered the news that couples undergoing procedures such as IVF want to hear. The flipside is that she's also had to break negative results and share the pain. "We give them the news – which can be good or bad. It can be absolutely wonderful when sometimes they've had failed treatments before. But then the nurses are very conscious of those that don't make it and we're here for them."

Karen, 51, from Glasgow, has a 19-year-old daughter, and has worked in women's health for more than 20 years. "I feel privileged to be helping people in this way. It's such a private thing and people can feel very vulnerable, so we offer a personalised service."

Karen joined the unit as a staff nurse six years ago and is now lead practitioner on the nursing team.

The specialist fertility nurses in her team build strong bonds with the couples and they are very involved in the process.

"We work as a team and we all have a part to play," says Karen. There's also a counsellor on hand to help couples (and staff) deal with the emotional rollercoaster.From a positive pregnancy result there are many more stages to pass through, from scans and checks in the intervening weeks to, hopefully, a healthy baby at the end.

"It's a really long journey for couples – made longer by the fact that they weren't able to get pregnant naturally," says Karen. "It makes the pregnancy particularly precious because they can't just go and get pregnant again if something goes wrong. But I still think if there's a chance, and if people want a baby they should try, and we'll support them along the way."

THE COUPLE

AS one-year-old Avier crawls across the floor at home in Edinburgh, mum Clair Gonzalez feels particularly blessed – especially as her son was born after she had already been sterilised.

Clair, 39, had been desperate for a child with her new husband, Aramis, 35, and so borrowed 3,500 on a credit card for one cycle of IVF – knowing they couldn't afford a second go.

Clair went into the Glasgow Nuffield Hospital to start her treatment on her birthday in February 2009 and was overjoyed to find she was pregnant by March.

"We paid privately and chose Glasgow over Edinburgh because of their success rates," says Clair.

"We'd have to drive across to Glasgow wondering all the time, 'Is it going to work?' which was emotionally tough. I had to inject myself with hormones daily which also made me emotional.

"We only had enough money for one go. If it hadn't worked we wouldn't have been able to do it again. It was a real roller-coaster. But all the care we had at the Nuffield was fantastic. And now we have a perfectly healthy one-year-old crawling around. It was all worth it."

Clair was introduced to her husband by a penpal when she visited Cuba in 2007 and through a mutual love of dance the pair fell for each other, marrying in 2008 before moving to Edinburgh. Both are hairdressers and are now qualified Zumba instructors.

Clair has two children, Jade, 21, and Jack, 18, from whose dad she split when they were young. While in another relationship, at the age of 32, she decided to be sterilised. Just two days after she underwent the surgery she split with her partner and began to regret her decision to be sterilised.

When she met Aramis, who also had two children, the pair realised they wanted a child together and are thrilled that IVF fulfilled their dream. Clair says: "I'm very proud of the fact I did IVF. I'm so proud that I have this beautiful boy and I'm blessed that it worked for me, because you never know."

THE EMBRYOLOGIST

WHEN a little girl skipped into the clinic with her parents on her first day of school, embryologist Ann Henderson couldn't disguise her joy. Much of scientist Ann's work takes place in the lab and seeing the success stories walking through the door years later never ceases to amaze her. She says: "Another time a newborn was carried in on the way home from hospital because their parents were so grateful and happy. It's such a joy when that happens and it does make your day."

Ann, 43, grew up in the Borders, and did a degree in developmental biology at the University of Glasgow. She then trained in Prof Robert Winston's team at Hammersmith Hospital in London. She has more than 17 years' experience working in fertility labs around the world, and sees her role as very much assisting nature rather than interfering.

She leads a team of embryologists and part of her work involves explaining the process of different procedures to couples and she also gives presentations at clinic open days. "I think it's a little unknown as it possibly doesn't cross people's minds what goes on in the lab, so I give people an idea of the timeline."

Ann feels lucky to have been able to have her own four daughters naturally. "It's an honour to be a mother, especially when you work in a profession like this. We're all smiling when someone gets a positive test – especially against the odds."

• www.nuffieldhealth.com/acsglasgow