Photo Credit: Reproductive Science Center
Kelly Burke, 45, became a first-time mommy 9 months ago thanks to a decision another woman made in 1994 when she was struggling with infertility.
It all started 19 years ago when a woman from Oregon was having a hard time getting pregnant. After battling infertility, she and her husband began IVF and during that time, decided to have some extra embryos frozen. Fortunately, the procedure was successful and she ended up giving birth to a happy pair of fraternal twins.
Since that time, her embryos remained frozen and untouched—that is, until last year.
In 2012, the Oregon woman and her husband decided to donate the embryos that had been frozen for the past 19 years.
The embryos were then adopted by Burke, who was already trying to become a mommy, Yahoo! Shine reported.
Burke shared her excitement about adopting the embryos and told Yahoo! Shine, “Embryos are not easy to come by and the opportunity came unexpectedly. I was excited by the idea of carrying my child.”
Doctors were able to thaw the embryos and cultured them to day 5 which, according to Yahoo! Shine, is the standard amount of time today.
Deborah Wachs, the reproductive endocrinologist who preformed Burke’s procedure, spoke of her amazement with the process and said, “We trust the technology of embryo freezing, but we still wondered, after 19 years, how they would do. It was very exciting for us.”
Burke had two embryos transferred and had the remaining two embryos frozen again. Nine months later, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy, whom she named Liam James.
When Liam James is older, he will get to meet his siblings (who are now teens) because Burke had an open adoption agreement when she adopted the frozen embryos, Officials at the RSC shared.
Burke hopes her story will help women and couples who are struggling with infertility. She told Yahoo! Shine, “I hope that this gives hope to others out there because I know what it’s like to desperately want to have a baby and not be able to.”
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