A newborn has been named the world’s oldest baby after being born from an embryo frozen in 1994.
Lindsey Pierce, 35 and her husband Tim, 34, welcomed baby Thaddeus on July 26 after adopting the embryo.
The couple from Ohio in the US had struggled to conceive for almost eight years when Lindsey became pregnant with Thaddeus.
The embryo was one of four created in 31 years ago when Linda Archerd, now 62, and her husband underwent in vitro fertilisation (IVF) after they also had problems conceiving.
Out of the four, one led to the birth of their daughter, who is now 30.
The other three embryos remained frozen in case the couple wanted more children.
Linda said: ‘I called them my three little hopes. I always wanted another baby desperately.’
She and her husband, however, divorced and although Linda got custody of the embryos she never used them.
When she reached menopause she decided to put them up for adoption with Snowflakes, a Christian embryo adoption organisation.
‘I always thought it was the right thing to do,’ she said.
As they had been frozen for such a long period of time, they were put undera programme called Open Hearts, a ‘hard to place’ scheme for embryos that are less likely to result in a healthy birth.
Several years later Lindsey and Tim signed up for the scheme and were given Linda’s embryo, which led to a successful pregnancy.
Lindsey told MIT Technology Review: ‘We are in awe that we have this precious baby.’
She described the actual birth as ‘rough’ but said she and Thaddeus are doing well.
‘We didn’t go into it thinking we would break any records,’ she added. ‘We just wanted to have a baby.’
How does IVF work and how successful is it?
IVF stands for ‘in vitro fertilization,’ a Latin phrase meaning “‘n glass fertilization.’
Unlike natural conception, where fertilization occurs within the body, IVF brings together eggs and sperm outside the body in a laboratory dish to achieve fertilization.
The resulting embryo(s) are then transferred into the uterus, where they will hopefully implant and grow, leading to pregnancy.
IVF was initially designed to help women with blocked or damaged fallopian tubes, but its now used to treat a range of fertility issues.
Women under 35 have an average live birth rate per IVF cycle of about 40-45%.
Success rates decrease significantly with increasing age, especially after age 40.
Advancements such as embryo selection, time-lapse imaging, and genetic testing have improved outcomes.
The first successful birth through IVF took place in 1978, when Louise Brown was born in Oldham, Greater Manchester.
Lindsey said the whole experience was ‘surreal’ and ‘hard to even believe’.
Linda, meanwhile, said she was struck by how much Thaddeus resembles her own child as an infant.
‘The first thing that I noticed when Lindsey sent me his pictures is how much he looks like my daughter when she was a baby,’ she said.
Before Thaddeus’s birth, the oldest embryos to lead to successful births were twins born from 30-year-old embryos in Oregon in 2022.
However, cases such as these are rare as few organisations will take old embryos, due to the higher risk of failing.
The facility that helped the Pierces conceive, Rejoice Fertility Clinic, was set up by reformed Presbyterian Dr John Gordon, to cut down the number of embryos held in storage.
He said: ‘Every embryo deserves a chance at life and the only embryo that cannot result in a healthy baby is the embryo not given the opportunity to be transferred into a patient.’
It’s believed millions of embryos leftover from IVF procedures are being kept in freezers around the world.
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