Lesley Brown, mother of world’s first test tube baby, dies aged 64

LONDON, UK – Lesley Brown, the woman who gave birth to the world’s first test tube baby, has died at the age of 64.

According to the BBC, Brown, who lived in the village of Whitchurch near the south-western British city of Bristol, had been trying to have a baby with husband John for nine years before she gave birth to her daughter Louise in July 1978 following In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) treatment.

The then-experimental procedure – whereby a woman’s eggs are fertilized outside the body in laboratory conditions and then implanted into the womb – was being pioneered at the University of Cambridge by two doctors, Prof Bob Edwards and Dr Patrick Steptoe, and Lesley signed up to it in a bid to have a child, according to the Mirror. Louise’s birth made headlines around the planet.

According to The Belfast Telegraph, Brown died at the Bristol Royal Infirmary on June 6 following a short illness. Her family were at her side.

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