(Newswire.net — February 4, 2017) — In the Iranian city of Isfahan, a baby was born from an embryo that doctors and scientists froze fourteen years ago, in 2003 to be exact.
This is a new record for keeping a fertilized embryo that has preserved its ability to develop into a healthy newborn baby, according to the Iranian news agency, IRNA.
The previous record was held by an embryo that was frozen 11 years ago, and was preserved in a special cold storage during this time.
Doctor Seyed Asadolah Kalantari, one of the leaders of the Isfahan infertility treatment center, said that until now, no one has managed to give birth to a healthy baby from an embryo that has been frozen for so long.
Kalantari added that there are more than 100,000 frozen embryos stored at the Isfahan infertility treatment center.
Otherwise, the 42-year-old mother of the new born baby, born from an embryo frozen 14 years ago, is feeling fine now, but previously she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, or cancer of the lymphatic system.
This woman gave birth to a child with the method of in-vitro fertilization which is considered to be the most successful in cases where a woman is diagnosed with a malignant tumor, especially for those who underwent radiation and chemotherapy.
The method implies egg cells to be artificially taken out and frozen before the start of chemotherapy and radiation. It leaves women a possibility to eventually give birth, if they manage to overcome the pernicious disease.
In this particular case in Iran, this is exactly what happened. The mother and her newborn baby are now healthy and feeling fine.
Another piece of good news is that the Iranian authorities are taking decisive steps to increase the country’s birth rates.
A few weeks ago, a bill was approved allowing fathers to take maternity leave for child care. As an effort to encourage couples to start a family, fathers are now allowed to stay at home with their wives in order to take care of their newborn baby.
Also in another effort to boost the birthrate by improving the conditions of parenthood, all medical expenses related to infertility treatments are covered by the state, which also gives financial incentives to young mothers, reports the Sputnik.