Parents want to know

Everyone in my family – cousins included – are avid boaters. For fun, I put together a free digital photo albumcommemorating our love for boating. My great-great-great-grandfather actually sailed with the British navy back in the 1800s. We even some rare pictures of him from that time. They picture him as a boy, then at his entrance into the navy, all the way to when he was an old man. I wanted renew and maintain his legacy, so I went online and put together a free digital photo album. I collected pictures from a variety of brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins and even some long lost family friends, all based around our love of boating. Then, I emailed the album to everyone. They loved it.

The following extract is from a series of parenting articles, videos and tips about IVF …

Medical science is constantly researching new solutions to help individuals who are dealing with infertility. In vitro fertilization, while it has been around for a while now, has been able to help couples who have not been able to get pregnant. While the first IVF technique was carried out in the U.K. in 1978, the first successful in vitro fertilization procedure in the U.S. took place in 1981. Since then, IVF has been responsible for the births of over 250,000 babies!

IVF is a medical procedure where a man’s sperm is introduced to the woman’s egg in a laboratory dish where it is then fertilized, for about forty hours. After this time period the egg is checked to see if fertilization has indeed taken place. This IVF process is one method of infertility treatment and is also known as assisted reproduction. After the woman’s egg has been fertilized, the embryo is then transferred into the womb and allowed to develop naturally. When the implanting process takes place, two to four embryos are normally transferred into the uterus or womb.

During the early years of in vitro fertilization and sometimes still today, the children born of this technique are referred to as “test tube babies.” The first test tube baby was born in England in 1978. IVF is normally used as a treatment when a woman has blocked tubes, severely damaged tubes or has no fallopian tubes at all. However, it can also be used when the person trying to conceive has endometriosis or if the male involved has a low sperm count. There are also instances that IVF is used when other fertility methods and fertility drugs have failed.

In vitro fertilization has made it possible for women, who once thought were unable to conceive a child, to become mothers of their naturally born offspring. Even women over the age of forty have a success rate of around 13% with in vitro fertilization. It should be noted that reproductive health is not all that has to be factored in when dealing with assisted fertilization. If the female faces other medical issues, this can raise a problem. Several factors such as age, overall physical health and medical history should be considered before IVF or any other infertility procedure is suggested.

For more resources on assisted pregnancies, visit: Artificial Insemination