Woman delivers frozen baby who is almost as old as her birth mother

A 26-year-old woman, Tina Gibson, recently gave birth to a baby girl who was conceived and frozen 24 years ago - which is around the same time when Tina herself was born. 

Baby girl Emma Gibson’s embryo was frozen on October 14, 1992 and after 24 years, Tina gave birth to the girl on November 25, 2017 in Tennessee. Such an embryo that is frozen in storage and preserved for possible future birth is called as a ‘snowbaby’.

Created from anonymous donors, Emma was marked as the longest frozen embryo to date and was frozen just a year after her now mother, Tina’s, own birth. The 24-year-old baby, leading to the new world record, took the parents by surprise too. Tina, who was 25 at the time of giving birth, said, “Do you realize I’m only 25? This embryo and I could have been best friends.”

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The Washington Post reported that the embryo was transferred to the mother’s uterus after it was clear that she and her husband were unlikely to have children due to her husband’s complexity. Even after being frozen for 24 years, Emma was born as a complete healthy girl. “People say, ‘oh it’s science,’ but no I think it’s a gift from the lord. It’s a gift from the lord, for sure,” Tina said.

However, it has been debated by few researchers if this counts as a record or not. Director of IVF in New York, Zaher Merhi said, “Nobody has these records.” On the other hand, according to a few experts, the previous record was set back in 2011 when a woman gave birth to a 20-year-old healthy baby boy.

Though surprised at the age of the snowbaby, Tina told CNN, “I just wanted a baby. I don’t care if it’s a world record or not.” She added, “We’re just so thankful and blessed. She’s a precious Christmas gift from the lord. We’re just so grateful.”

Furthermore, this success points out that embryos can be safely donated and left frozen in storage for future embryo adoption. Last year too, scientists successfully experimented developing premature lambs in artificial wombs that were kept inside uterus-like, fluid-filled ‘biobag’ and resulted in healthy lambs being born.

As per Futurism, this technique could also be used in future for saving human children being born dangerously premature. Science has even evolved to be able to let women give birth through uterus transplant or through 3D-printed ovaries.