Meet America's First IVF Baby

Elizabeth Carr: I'm Elizabeth Carr, and I was the first IVF baby born in the United States. Elizabeth: I was born back in December 28, 1981, and it was absolutely a media circus. The process of in vitro fertilization had never been done in the United States before. And I had to be born in Virginia: IVF was actually illegal in my home state of Massachusetts. Elizabeth: People always assume that I should be older. I'm only 44 now. It's still a technology that is very much in my mind in its infancy. We still have a long way to go. Elizabeth: When my parents were trying to get pregnant, they figured out pretty quickly that my mother could get pregnant but not stay pregnant. She actually experienced three ectopic pregnancies, which are essentially tubal pregnancies. Her tubes ruptured to the point that she had severe internal bleeding. So on a recovery from a surgery, her OBGYN said, well, you know, I don't know where you are in, you know, thinking about having your family, but I just came back from a conference where I learned about this thing called IVF. And there’s a team, a husband and wife that are trying to put together a clinic in Norfolk, Virginia, and they’re looking for patients. And I think you should apply. And he handed her a one-page, black-and-white xeroxed piece of paper. And my parents talked about it and thought, “What do we have to lose?” And they applied. And about two weeks later, doctors Howard and Georgeanna called my parents and said, “How soon can you get here?” Elizabeth: My first press conference was at three days old. This was a big moment in history. The doctors actually did give my parents the option to stay private. But my parents felt very strongly that people should know, no, we’re just a normal couple looking to build our family like everybody else. And our child is normal and walks and talks and sounds just like every other child. And so they put themselves out there because they wanted people to know that this was a viable option. Elizabeth: I joke that a frequent question I get is, do I have a belly button. People actually do ask me that because they think that I was grown in a tube or a lab. Test tubes were not used. A petri dish was used. Conception happened in the petri dish. And then I was put back in my mother’s womb, and nine months later, here I was like everybody else. Elizabeth: One thing people should know, particularly around IVF and reproductive technologies, is that the use of them is not just for the infertility community now. It’s people who are going on military deployment, who need to time their family building. It’s people who are going through cancer treatment, who need to preserve their fertility. It’s people who are LGBTQ who may need an assist from technology in order to build their family. Elizabeth: With the procedure becoming so much more common, I really, in one way, feel like a big older sister to a lot of children all around the world. By last count, there were something like 12 million of us IVF babies, which makes me feel really proud.