ALMOST five decades on from her birth making global headlines, Louise Brown is used to strangers telling her: “Thank you.”
But the 46-year-old bakery worker, who was the world’s first IVF baby, hopes a new film will shed deserved praise on the British pioneers who developed the “miracle technique”, despite huge controversy at the time.
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Netflix drama Joy — which is named after Louise’s middle name — reveals the sacrifices made by determined trio Robert Edwards, Jean Purdy and Patrick Steptoe.
Scientist Robert was forced to work 170 miles from his family home because the medical establishment would not fund his research.
Embryology nurse Jean was in conflict with her religious mother.
And gynaecologist surgeon Patrick had to put off his retirement dreams.
Even worse, “Frankenbabies” was daubed on their clinic wall, they received death threats, and vile messages were sent to newborn Louise.
Perfect candidate
Sceptics demanded proof that Louise’s mum Lesley really was infertile and claimed the baby would be abnormal.
But a perfectly healthy Louise was born on July 25, 1978, proving them wrong — as did the arrival of 12million more IVF babies since then.
Acclaim for the dedicated team has been a long time coming, with Jean and Patrick both dying before the Nobel committee recognising the incredible achievement in 2010.
The award cannot be given posthumously so only Sir Robert was named on the accolade.
Louise says in an exclusive interview: “I still get people come up to me saying, ‘Oh, you’re amazing’.
And I’m like, ‘I didn’t do anything, it was Mum and Dad and the three doctors’.
“It’s lovely people who want to thank them.
“It is a shame they can’t be here to see the film, and my mum wasn’t there to watch it with me.”
Released on the streaming service next Friday, the movie features James Norton as Robert, Bill Nighy as Patrick and Thomasin McKenzie as Jean.
Dr Edwards started researching fertilisation in 1955 and hired Jean to join his laboratory at Cambridge University in 1968.
That year, he successfully fertilised a human embryo.
Patrick was brought in to find a way to safely and successfully insert the fertilised egg into the womb.
With the medical council unwilling to fund the research, the trio had to set up a clinic in a crumbling, disused ward of Royal Oldham Hospital in 1969, where Robert had worked.
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That meant a lot of travel for father-of-five Robert, whose family stayed in Cambridge, and the growing notoriety of their Centre For Human Reproduction was also distressing.
Louise, who still lives in Bristol, says: “A lot of effort went into it, staying away from their families, and Jean falling out with her mother, who was very religious.”
Both the Church of England and the Catholic Church were opposed to science having a hand in childbirth.
Of the first 100 would-be mothers, only one got pregnant, with that tragically resulting in an ectopic pregnancy — where the fertilised egg has implanted outside the uterus and cannot develop properly.
All that was to change when Robert decided to do away with the growth hormone he was using to stimulate a patient’s ovaries and instead use the one egg they produced naturally each month.
Louise says: “Mum had been trying to get pregnant for about ten years.
“She went to her local GP, and they diagnosed her with depression for not being able to get pregnant.”
Lesley was referred to a specialist who said there was “a million-to-one chance she would have a baby” as her Fallopian tubes were blocked.
They recommended she saw Dr Steptoe.
Louise continues: “Mum went to Oldham for a meeting with Patrick Steptoe and he said she was a perfect candidate for it.”
But she had to have a gynecological operation to solve other problems in her womb before IVF could even be attempted.
That operation was not available on the NHS so had to be performed privately.
At school, everybody was inquisitive.
Louise Brown
Fortunately, her truck driver dad John had won £500 on the football pools so they could afford it.
Even though it was an experimental procedure, Lesley had total trusted in Dr Steptoe.
Louise says with a smile: “As soon as she met Patrick, she just she had a feeling he would be able to help her get pregnant.
“And she did say, ‘I feel pregnant’ after the egg implantation.
“She completely trusted Patrick, Bob and Jean.
“If they had said, go into Trafalgar Square and stand on your head naked and you’ll get pregnant, she would have.”
Louise adds: “It was something like the 101st try, one egg, with my dad’s sperm, and it worked.”
Because Lesley suffered from pre-eclampsia, Louise was born by planned Caesarean section at Oldham District and General Hospital with the world’s media camped outside.
The birth was video-taped so there were images of Lesley’s reproductive organs to prove she could not have become pregnant naturally.
And baby Louise was thoroughly probed and prodded to establish that scientific intervention hadn’t harmed her.
Even her fingerprints were taken — staining the newborn’s tiny nails.
She explains: “When I was born, I had over 100 tests.
Drama pays tribute
“I had black in my nails — my mum got quite upset about that.
“But they had taken my fingerprints.
“I have had no extra testing since then, because when I was born I did not have any problems.”
Once the proud new parents returned to their home in Bristol, they received mountains of mail, some of it threatening.
Louise says: “We had a package arrive at the house not long after I was born.
“There was a test tube in a little box and it was smashed.
“And there was red ink, which I’m assuming was blood, with a little foetus inside.
“And it just said, ‘We’re coming to get you.’
“Mum was a bit uneasy.”
The term “test tube baby” always frustrated the Brown family because none were involved.
Louise says: “At school, everybody was inquisitive.
“They used to say, ‘Oh, were you actually born in a test tube?’ And I used to go, ‘No, don’t be stupid, it was a petri dish’.”
Although she was joking, a petri dish did play a role in Louise’s creation.
Her mum’s egg was fertilised in one, with John’s sperm, then the resultant embryo was grown in an incubator jar before being implanted in Lesley’s womb.
A lot of the Netflix film focuses on Jean, who Louise does not remember because she was just seven when the nurse died from cancer in 1985, aged 39.
Even though they weren’t successful, they helped pave the way.
Louise Brown
Robert fought a long campaign to ensure Jean be given equal recognition with himself and Patrick, who died in 1988 aged 74.
He also complained when her name was not included on a plaque at Oldham hospital in 1980.
But it was not until 2022 that the omission was rectified.
The drama also pays tribute to the women who took part in the trio’s trial and error process, knowing there was a good chance it would not work out.
Louise says: “Without them I wouldn’t be here.
“Even though they weren’t successful, they helped pave the way.”
When Louise became a mother herself, conceiving Cameron, 17 and Aiden, 11, naturally, she had a better appreciation of what the women had gone through.
She adds: “You never really understand until you have children.
“When I had my sons, I realised that feeling.
“I realised how good those people were.”
Pioneering process
Dr Edwards kept in close contact with Louise, even attending her wedding to security officer Wesley Mullinder, 53, in 2004.
She says: “I’m still in touch with his family now, which is lovely.”
Louise’s sister Natalie, 42, was also conceived using the pioneering process four years later, becoming the world’s 40th IVF child.
Both Louise’s parents have passed away — Lesley died aged 64 in 2012 after developing septicaemia while being treated in hospital for gallstones. John died from lung cancer in 2007 also aged 64.
Normally a private person, Louise chose to talk about Jean, Patrick and Robert because she wants them to be remembered.
She concludes: “They have done it for 12million of us.
“I owe them my life.
“I would do anything for any of them, my parents and the three scientists.
“Without the five of them, and their determination, I would not be here.”
- Joy (12A) streams on Netflix from November 22 and is in cinemas now.