Louise Joy Brown was born at Oldham General Hospital, Lancashire, by planned Caesarean section delivered by registrarJohn Webster. She weighed 5 pounds, 12 ounces at birth. Her parents, Lesley and John Brown, had been trying to conceive for nine years. Lesley faced complications of blocked fallopian tubes. On 10 November 1977, Lesley Brown underwent a procedure, later to become known as in vitro fertilisation, developed by Patrick Steptoe, Robert Edwards and Jean Purdy. Purdy was the first to see her embryonic cells dividing. Edwards, as the only surviving partner, was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Medicine for this work. Although the media referred to Brown as a "test tube baby", her conception actually took place in a Petri dish. Her younger sister, Natalie Brown, was also conceived through IVF four years later, and became the world's fortieth child after conception by IVF. In May 1999, Natalie was the first human born after conception by IVF to give birth herself—without IVF. On the 25th July 2018 Louise celebrated her 40th birthday. For Louise, this was another birthday, but for the world, 2018 marked the 40th year since the first successful treatment of IVF at Bourn Hall Clinic in the UK. Louise would spend most of the year travelling the world talking about her life and experiences. She talked exclusively with Fertility Road Magazine about her life in the fertility spotlight.
Career and family life
In 2004, Brown married nightclub doorman Wesley Mullinder. Dr. Edwards attended their wedding. Their first son, conceived naturally, was born on 20 December 2006. Brown's father died in 2006. Her mother died on 6 June 2012 in Bristol Royal Infirmary at the age of 64 due to complications from a gallbladder infection.
Although the Browns knew the procedure was experimental, the doctors did not tell them that no case had yet resulted in a baby. This has raised questions of informed consent. In 1978, when asked for his reaction to Brown's birth, the patriarch of Venice, Cardinal Albino Luciani, expressed concerns about the possibility that artificial insemination could lead to women being used as "baby factories", but also refused to condemn the parents of the child, noting they simply wanted to have a baby.
