New IVF technology being developed
in the United Kingdom is allowing parents to obtain baby ‘cellfies’ – images of
their children when they are just a few cells in a petri dish. In recent years,
IVF clinics have developed cutting-edge time-lapse photography designed to
monitor cell development in the first few days, so that doctors can pick the
healthiest embryo for implantation in the womb and boost the chances of having
a baby. The technique has also allowed parents to witness beginning of their
child’s life at the very moment of conception, and in the crucial few days
after fertilization. Clinics in the United Kingdom are also set to start trialing
technology to allow prospective mothers and fathers to watch the live footage
as the embryos are developing in the lab. Time-lapse technology has allowed
researcher to get all these images from the first few days after conception and
put them on a USB stick so that parents have pictures of their children,
literally, from day one, when they are still in the laboratory. But it won’t be
long before parents will be able to dial into the clinic using a unique number
and see how their embryos are getting on in real time. Embryos are very
sensitive, so in the past researcher could only get them out every 24 hours and
have a look at how they were doing, but now they photograph them every 10
minutes. The pictures go way beyond than the current earliest images taken by
ultrasound of babies in the womb.
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