Louise Brown celebrates her 40th birthday at Bourn Hall
25 Jul 2018
Happy Birthday! Louise Brown, the world’s first IVF baby, celebrates her 40th birthday with some Bourn Hall Babies
Louise Brown invited some recent Bourn Hall Babies to help her blow out the candles on her cake. The world’s first ‘test-tube’ baby is celebrating her 40th birthday on 25th July 2018.
After a brief introduction by Dr Thanos Papathanasiou, Regional Lead Clinician for Bourn Hall, Louise said a few words to the guests:
“Thank you so much for inviting me here today.
“Bourn Hall was formed by the pioneers of IVF after I was born and I have great memories of coming here many times as a child, usually around my birthday.
” I would rather keep it quiet that I am 40 but the IVF community around the world won’t let me do that.
“A few weeks ago I was in Barcelona, Spain. A short distance away some experts were releasing a report saying there are now eight million IVF babies in the world. That is an incredible thought, that it all started with Bob Edwards, Patrick Steptoe, Jean Purdy and my mum and dad.
“Many of you here today are part of that worldwide IVF family.
“We are celebrating 40 years of IVF this year, rather than my individual birthday.
“I have already had “Happy Birthday” sung to me on four continents this year – in Africa it was in Marakesh, Morrocco; in America it was in Chicago and in Asia in Tokyo, Japan. In Europe it was at a nightclub in Barcelona, Spain! I understand we are going to sing it again and it would be great if all the children can help me blow out the candles!”
In this picture we have from from left to right
Sophie Simms from Enfield, who will be 2 a week after Louise; Aiden Mullinder, Louise’s son, who is 4; Louise herself, 40; Fletcher Stonestreet from Bedfordshire who is 3; and Martha Weavers from Norfolk who is 3.
Find out how can we help you
Book a consultation call with our team to find out how Bourn Hall can help you on your fertility journey
Latest articles
First Christmas as a family, thank you Bourn Hall!
“We spent many Christmases saying to each other ‘maybe next year we will have another…
Coping with Christmas: Make your own family traditions
A game plan can help you cope with family get-togethers
Coping with Christmas: Dealing with friends’ good news
Your work colleague might also have been trying for years to conceive.
Patient reviews you can trust
Genuine experiences from real patients. See why so many trust us with their fertility care.
“We went to an open evening at Bourn Hall Wickford and came away feeling really positive about the place. The staff were really friendly and the presentation was clear about the statistics regarding success rates and live birth rates; their data was very transparent. We came away feeling like we would really be looked after.”
Katy and Leigh are parents to Charlie after IVF
Patient 2023
“We chose to make an appointment at Bourn Hall Wickford because of the favourable reviews. When we got there and met the staff they were just so lovely, making us feel welcome and explaining to us what tests would need to be done and what our options were; we just thought ‘yes, let’s get the ball rolling!”
Jess and Fran are mums to Nathan after IVF with donor sperm
Patient 2023