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Among the guests at BCRM’s celebration of ’40 years of made-in-Bristol IVF babies’ were some pioneering parents who had their treatment decades ago. Here, one such mum, Maggie, shares her story. “My husband and I started trying for a family in 1985 when I was nearly 33. “Ten years later, by which time we were on the two-year waiting list for IVF treatment, we conceived unexpectedly and were delighted to become parents to a baby girl. “When our daughter reached 18 months we wanted to try for a second baby, but I was 44 by then and IVF was not available to women over 45 so, with the clock ticking, we decided to pay for private treatment at Bristol Centre for Reproductive Medicine (BCRM).

Guests at the party held last year to celebrate the milestone of 40 years of IVF babies ‘made in Bristol’ included one family whose own IVF ‘baby’ is now 23 years old. His parents were among many attendees who grabbed the chance to tell the team at Bristol Centre for Reproductive Medicine (BCRM) how very grateful they are for their support to have a baby at a time when it looked like that might not happen. “Motherhood has been all I hoped it would be and more,” said dental nurse, Sharon. She also shared her recollections of what it was like going through fertility treatment at Bristol Centre for Reproductive Medicine (BCRM) two and a half decades ago.

An unusual appeal is being launched in the West Country: to find the first people conceived and born in Bristol as the result of IVF so they can be included in celebrations to mark 40 years since the first IVF baby was born in the city back in 1984.