The world’s first IVF baby, Louise Brown, was born on July 25, 1978, at Oldham General Hospital in England. She was conceived through natural-cycle IVF developed by physiologist Robert Edwards and gynecologist Patrick Steptoe — a breakthrough that has since helped an estimated 9.8 to 13 million babies arrive worldwide through assisted reproduction, counting births from 1978 through 2018 — Adamson 2025.
Data in this article come from the original Lancet paper, Steptoe & Edwards, 1978, the 40-year cumulative ART birth estimate Adamson 2025, the US registry analysis Albright 2026, Wikipedia’s history of in vitro fertilisation and the CDC’s assisted reproductive technology surveillance. It was compiled by the ProIVF Medical Editorial Team and reviewed by the ProIVF Medical Advisory Board.
Who Was the First IVF Baby?
Louise Joy Brown was the first person ever born through in vitro fertilization (IVF). She was born at 11:47 p.m. on July 25, 1978, weighing 5 pounds 12 ounces (about 2.6 kg).
Her parents, Lesley and John Brown, had been trying to conceive for nine years — Lesley’s fallopian tubes were blocked, making natural conception essentially impossible. For a couple who had waited nearly a decade, the cry in that delivery room marked the end of the wait.
The procedure was performed by gynecologist Patrick Steptoe and physiologist Robert Edwards, who had collaborated on human IVF research since 1968, with embryology nurse Jean Purdy. Louise was conceived through natural-cycle IVF — no ovarian stimulation drugs at all; the team retrieved the single egg Lesley’s body produced that month.
The result was published in the Lancet on August 12, 1978:
“Birth after the reimplantation of a human embryo.” — Steptoe & Edwards, The Lancet, 12 August 1978, PubMed
What Happened to Louise Brown?
Louise Brown grew up in Bristol, England. Her younger sister Natalie Brown became the second IVF baby in 1982 and, in 1999, the first person born via IVF to conceive naturally — proof that women born through IVF can have children without assistance.
Louise herself had two sons, conceived naturally, in 2006 and 2013.
In 2023, Louise published her memoir My Life as the First IVF Baby, telling her story on the 45th anniversary of her birth.
When Did IVF Begin? The Complete Timeline
IVF did not begin in 1978 — its scientific foundations stretch back decades. The timeline below shows how IVF became the treatment used by millions today.
| Year | Milestone | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| 1890 | Walter Heape reports the first successful embryo transfer in a mammal (rabbit) | Proved embryos could develop in a surrogate mother |
| 1959 | First birth of a non-human mammal (rabbit) conceived via IVF | Confirmed fertilization outside the body was possible in mammals |
| 1968 | Steptoe, Edwards and Purdy begin human IVF research | The team behind the first IVF baby starts working together |
| 1976 | First human IVF pregnancy reported (ectopic) | Showed IVF conception was possible in humans |
| 1978-07-25 | Louise Brown born — world’s first IVF baby | IVF proven viable in humans |
| 1978-10-03 | Durga born in India — world’s second IVF baby | Developed independently by Subhash Mukhopadhyay, 70 days after Louise |
| 1980-06-23 | Candice Reed born in Melbourne, Australia | First IVF baby outside the UK |
| 1981 | Monash University team reports 9 live births from stimulated cycles | Clomiphene + hCG turned IVF from a research tool into clinical treatment |
| 1983 | First pregnancy using a frozen (cryopreserved) embryo | Foundation of today’s frozen embryo transfer (FET) |
| 1983-12 | First babies born from a frozen embryo (twins) | Embryo freezing became a viable technique |
| 1983 | First pregnancy from egg donation | Women without eggs could become mothers |
| 1984-02-03 | First US child born from egg donation | Egg donation arrives in America |
| 1985 | Taiwan’s first IVF baby born at Taipei Veterans General Hospital | First IVF baby in the Chinese-speaking world |
| 1986-12-12 | Hong Kong’s first IVF baby born at Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital | IVF reaches Hong Kong |
| 1988-03-10 | Mainland China’s first IVF baby born at Beijing Medical University Third Hospital (now Peking University Third Hospital) | IVF begins in mainland China |
| 1992 | ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection) developed in Brussels | Single-sperm injection let men with severe male-factor infertility father children |
| 2010 | Robert Edwards awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine | Official recognition of IVF’s global impact |
| 2018 | 9.8–13 million babies born worldwide through ART, 1978–2018 | IVF’s 40-year cumulative milestone — Adamson 2025 |
The scientific foundations before 1978
Long before Louise Brown, researchers laid the groundwork:
- 1890: Cambridge professor Walter Heape performed the first successful embryo transfer in rabbits, showing an embryo could develop in a surrogate mother.
- 1934: Gregory Pincus (later famous for the birth-control pill) attempted rabbit IVF.
- 1944: Miriam Menkin and John Rock fertilized human ovarian eggs in vitro and observed cleavage — Rock & Menkin, Science 1944 — though no embryo was ever transferred.
- 1959: The first rabbit was born via IVF, proving mammals could be conceived outside the body.
- 1969: Robert Edwards successfully fertilized human eggs in the laboratory, published in Nature.
How Did IVF Spread Around the World?
After Louise Brown’s birth, IVF clinics multiplied rapidly across the globe. The second IVF baby, Durga, was born in India on October 3, 1978 — just 70 days after Louise — conceived through a program physician Subhash Mukhopadhyay developed independently with rudimentary equipment.
Australia followed with Candice Reed, born June 23, 1980.
In the United States, the first IVF baby, Elizabeth Carr, was born on December 28, 1981, at Eastern Virginia Medical School. ART is now routine rather than experimental there: the CDC and SART each publish annual national outcome data, and one analysis of the SART registry covered 2,275,167 US ART cycles from 2014 to 2022 — Albright 2026.
IVF milestones in the Chinese-speaking world
For Chinese-speaking families, these milestones carry particular meaning:
- Taiwan (1985): the first IVF baby was born at Taipei Veterans General Hospital.
- Hong Kong (December 12, 1986): the first IVF baby was born at Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital.
- Mainland China (March 10, 1988): the first IVF baby was born at Beijing Medical University Third Hospital (now Peking University Third Hospital).
Since then, China has become one of the world’s largest IVF markets, with hundreds of licensed reproductive centers. ProIVF’s global fertility clinic directory covers leading centers across six countries to help families compare options.
How Has IVF Evolved Since 1978?
From natural cycle to controlled stimulation
Louise Brown was conceived in a natural cycle — one egg, no drugs. The breakthrough that made IVF available to the many came in 1981, when the Monash University team in Australia used clomiphene and hCG to stimulate the ovaries into producing multiple eggs.
That converted IVF from a research tool into a clinical treatment, and it is the basis of the standard IVF process used today.
Embryo freezing, 1983
The first pregnancy using a frozen embryo was reported in 1983 — Trounson & Mohr, Nature — and the first frozen-embryo babies — twins — were born that December. Today frozen embryo transfer accounts for the majority of IVF cycles in many countries, giving patients flexibility and often higher per-transfer success.
How long a full IVF cycle takes from start to finish depends on the protocol and whether frozen embryos are used.
Egg donation, 1983-1984
The first egg-donation pregnancy occurred in 1983, and the first US baby from a donor egg was born on February 3, 1984. Egg donation now helps women with diminished ovarian reserve, genetic conditions or premature ovarian failure build families.
ICSI — solving male infertility, 1992
In 1992, Gianpiero Palermo and colleagues at UZ Brussel in Belgium developed intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) — injecting a single sperm directly into an egg — Lancet, 1992. It revolutionized the treatment of male-factor infertility, letting men with very low counts or poor sperm quality become biological fathers — ASRM.
PGT — genetic testing of embryos
Preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) screens embryos before transfer: PGT-A for abnormal chromosome numbers and PGT-M for specific inherited diseases. It adds cost and time, but in selected patients it lowers the risk of miscarriage and of passing on a known genetic condition.
What Are IVF Success Rates, 1978 to Today?
The figures below are live births per egg-retrieval cycle — the share of started cycles that end with a baby, a more honest measure than clinical pregnancy rates.
| Era | Typical success rate (live birth per cycle) |
|---|---|
| 1978-1981 | Less than 10% |
| 1990s | 15-25% |
| 2000s | 25-35% |
| 2020s (US, women under 35) | 40-50% or higher |
Volume at national level is tracked year by year: the CDC publishes national ART success rates, and the SART registry behind them carried 2,275,167 cycles from 2014 to 2022, of which 97.4 percent involved US residents — Albright 2026. Rates vary widely by age, diagnosis and clinic; for clinic-level figures see our IVF success rate guide.
FAQ
Q: Who was the first IVF baby?
Louise Joy Brown, born on July 25, 1978, in Oldham, England. She was conceived through natural-cycle IVF developed by Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards.
Q: When did IVF start?
The first successful human IVF birth was in 1978, but the scientific groundwork began in the 1890s. Edwards and Steptoe started collaborating on human IVF in 1968, and the first human IVF pregnancy was reported in 1976 — it ended as an ectopic pregnancy.
Q: Is Louise Brown still alive?
Yes. Louise Brown lives in England with her family.
She gave birth to two sons naturally, in 2006 and 2013, and published her memoir in 2023.
Q: Can IVF babies have babies naturally?
Yes. Natalie Brown, the second IVF baby (born 1982), conceived her first child naturally in 1999 — the first IVF-born person to do so — and Louise Brown’s two sons were also naturally conceived.
Two of the first two IVF babies conceiving unaided is the strongest real-world evidence that being born via IVF does not impair later fertility; multiple long-term follow-up studies likewise show adults born through IVF generally have normal fertility.
Q: How many babies have been born through IVF?
Between 9.8 and 13 million babies were born worldwide through assisted reproduction between 1978 and 2018 — the 40-year cumulative estimate in Adamson 2025. The figure is a range because clinics, countries and regions report sporadically or not at all, so the authors modelled the missing births statistically instead of counting them.
Q: Who won the Nobel Prize for IVF?
Robert Edwards received the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the development of IVF. Patrick Steptoe and Jean Purdy were not eligible because the Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously.
Q: When was the first IVF baby born in China?
Mainland China’s first IVF baby was born on March 10, 1988, at Beijing Medical University Third Hospital (now Peking University Third Hospital). Taiwan’s first was in 1985 and Hong Kong’s in 1986.
How to Plan Your Own IVF Journey
IVF history is proof of how far reproductive medicine has come — from one baby in 1978 to at least 9.8 million by 2018, and from success rates under 10% to over 40% for women under 35 at leading clinics. If you are starting your own journey, these resources help:
- What is IVF? A complete beginner’s guide
- IVF step-by-step: from stimulation to embryo transfer
- IVF success rates by age
- Compare fertility clinics worldwide and find the right clinic and doctor for your situation
Every IVF baby’s story starts somewhere — and nearly five decades of evidence say the odds have never been better for the families taking that first step. You can also contact the ProIVF team for help matching your situation to a clinic.
This article was written by the ProIVF Medical Editorial Team and reviewed by the ProIVF Medical Advisory Board. All data are sourced from published medical literature, historical records and government surveillance data, with primary sources linked throughout. The goal is objective, accurate information for patients.
This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute professional medical advice. For personalized guidance, consult a licensed reproductive medicine specialist.
Last updated: August 24, 2026
