Louise Joy Brown made modern scientific history as the world’s first IVF baby (Picture: Getty)
Louise Joy Brown – the world’s first test-tube baby – has lived a perfectly normal life, all under the ‘intrusive’ media spotlight.
Louise, 46, was born on July 25, 1978 in Oldham General Hospital after a decade-long scientific and social struggle from in vitro fertilisation (IVF) pioneers – Jean Purdy, Dr Patrick Steptoe and Robert ‘Bob’ Edwards.
Over four decades later, and with two children of her own, the dramatic story of Louise’s history-making birth is finally being told to the world, where there are over 12,000,000 IVF babies alive today.
‘When I was born, it was the unknown. They didn’t know if I was going to be healthy. They didn’t know if there was going to be any abnormalities,’ she told Metro as Netflix’s new biopic Joy hits screen.
But the hypermedia focus on her and her family (exacerbated by the rampant opposition from more conservative circles) meant that she received hate mail up until ‘the first couple of years after [her] birth’.
Although the furor eventually died down, the press’ fascination with Louise did not.
Her birth, and the scientific pioneers behind it, changed the world (Picture: Getty)
From as young as the age of 14 she was being asked by strangers if she planned to use IVF to grow her own family, and the gravity of who she was fully sunk in.
‘In my teenage years I was a bit more freaked out about the fact that somebody over the other side of the world knew all about me and I knew nothing about them,’ she said.
‘When you’re a teenager and you want to do something I used to then stop and think, “oh, well, am I going to get into trouble? Is this going to be headline news?”
‘It didn’t really affect me because I’d say I was overall quite a good girl but there was always that thought in the back of my mind “oh, are the press going to be around? Are they going to catch me?”‘
And it’s not something she has been able to escape in adulthood either, recalling on incident when she was stalked by photographers outside her job at a nursery.
‘There was no relevance to why he was there or any story that was breaking. So it was quite intrusive,’ she added, although now she has learnt to ‘go with the flow of everything’ and is ‘not bothered’.
Her parents received hate mail the first few years after her birth (Picture: Ted Blackbrow/ANL/REX/Shutterstock)
If anything, she is immensely ‘proud’ of her legacy and what her birth signified for so many million so families around the world who were facing their own fertility problems.
The NHS assigns IVF to couples based on a case-by-case basis with the final decision made by local integrated care boards (ICBs) with criteria including age, health and any previous children.
But the system is far from perfect, it was only as recently as 2009 that gay couples were allowed to use IVF on the NHS.
Meanwhile, this day, couples of all walks of life are having to pay eye-watering amounts to access the treatment.
Louise, a strong advocate for IVF accessibility, shared: ‘All I know is that the three pioneers wanted everybody that needed it to use it. I agree with them. I think it should be more readily available.
‘Whether that’s going to change in the near future. Who knows? There’s lots of strain on the NHS at the moment.
The mother-of-two believes IVF should be accessible to anyone who needs it (Picture: PA)
A timeline of IVF’s creation
1968-1969: Jean Purdy, Robert ‘Bob’ Edwards and Dr Patrick Steptoe started their collaboration by attempting to successful retrieve and fertilise a human egg cell
1970 – 1975: Jean, Bob and Patrick officially moved to Dr. Kershaw’s Cottage Hospital, in Oldham where women are recruited to undergo the pioneering IVF treatment and become known as the Ovum Club.
1975: The first ectopic pregnancy, as a result of IVF, occurs.
1977: After a change in scientific strategy Lesley Brown falls pregnant.
1978: The world’s first ‘test-tube’ baby, Louise Joy Brown, is born.
2010: Bob, the last surviving member of the founding team, accepts the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on IVF.
2015: A new plaque is unveiled outside the Royal Society of Biology to recognise Jean’s involvement.
‘I mean, I’d love it personally for everybody to be able to have a try on the NHS, and that it worked for everybody. But that is something that is probably never, ever going to happen.’
But Louise’s most profound contribution to the ongoing discourse around IVF is ‘keeping the legacy’ of the five most important people in her life alive – Patrick, Jean, Bob, her mum and dad.
Netflix’s new movie Joy – starring Bill Nighy, James Norton and Thomasin McKenzie – does just that, with the previously overlooked Jean at the front and centre of the story.
‘I was nine when Patrick Steptoe died so I was even younger when Jean Purdy passed away. But I know she wrote my mum some lovely letters at Christmas just wishing us well.
She’s thrilled the legacy of the most important people in her life will be preserved on screen (Picture: Kerry Brown/Netflix)
‘Unfortunately, I’ve got no memories of her, but I’m so pleased that she’s got her recognition the same as Bob and Patrick in the film.’
And if there is one thing she hopes people can take away from this movie, it is to open their eyes to all the joys IVF can bring to a family.
‘IVF is by no means an easy step but it can bring so much joy. Go for it, basically,’ she concluded.
‘My mum had no options. She tried it and it worked first time so hopefully [audiences] will take away how hard the three pioneers tried for 10 years to get this up and running.’
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