Three years ago, in 2017, the world's oldest baby at that time was born and was named Emma Wren Gibson. She was a frozen embryo for 24 years before being transferred to be born. However, it seems that she has to give up that title to her newborn sister which was born on October 26.
Today, the title record holder for the oldest baby in the world belongs to the new addition to their family which is the full biological sibling of Emma. Named Molly Everette Gibson, she was a frozen embryo for 28 years since October 1992. In other words, she was a baby that is decades in the making.
The oldest baby has almost the same age as her mother
Technically, Molly is 28 years old which is almost the same age as her mother Tina, aged 29. Tina was just about one year and 18 months when Molly was frozen in her embryonic form. In other words, both of them have been here on Earth the same amount of time but born in different generations.
Indeed, it is a concept that seemed to be hard to understand and believe, according to Tina Gibson. Nonetheless, she and her husband consider Molly as their little miracle, as well as her elder sister Emma who once held the title for the world's oldest baby.
Emma and Molly are technically biological siblings, being conceived from the same parents but who remains anonymous until this day. The sisters are considered to be the longest-frozen embryos ever to be born, according to ScienceAlert.
The Gibson family once struggled to conceive their own baby for several years, that's why the couple feels blessed with the two miracle babies. Tina told BBC that until now she is over the moon and that if someone would have asked her five years ago to have two kids she would dismiss it as a crazy idea.
The births of the two children were facilitated by the National Embryo Donation Center (NEDC) in Knoxville. The center is a Christian-based nonprofit organization that receives donated embryos from couples who undergo IVF but for some reason did not go through with the whole process.
What is embryo freezing?
The first thing needed for embryo freezing is an embryo. The eggs are extracted using an ultrasound machine to ensure accuracy, according to Medical News Today.
Some women sometimes opted to freeze their eggs to be used in the future when they decide to get pregnant in which the doctor may suggest an IVF or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).
In IVF, eggs are extracted and then expose them to the sperm cells and leave them in a laboratory for fertilization. While in the ICSI, the doctor extracts the egg cell and then injects the sperm directly into the egg cell. ICSI is usually done if the IVF does not work.
Once fertilized, it is injected into a female or it can also be frozen for later use. The embryo can be frozen for a long time, as long as ten years.
In the case of Emma and Molly, they are the living proof that frozen embryos can last for more than a decade, although this event is not yet fully understood.
"As long as the embryos are maintained correctly in the liquid nitrogen storage tank at minus 396 degrees, we feel they may be good indefinitely," NEDC lab director Carol Sommerfelt told the New York Post. "With the birth of Molly, we know they can survive at least 27 and a half years and probably longer."
Check out more news and information on IVF in Science Times.
