The Harvest Infertility Care Limited yesterday claimed that the first baby from frozen embryo was born in the country 10 months ago and the birth of Apsora on Friday was not the first incident of this kind.
At a press conference at the Dhaka Reporters' Unity (DRU) yesterday Prof Dr SR Begum of the Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) said that one 'Noor' was born on November 19 last year following frozen embryo implantation.
Dr Kabir and his wife, who had been trying for a baby for long 13 years, successfully had the girl following a treatment process of 'in vitro fertilisation' at the Harvest Infertility Care Limited.
Dr SR Begum supervised the crucial period of implanting the embryo to the mother's uterus and Prof Dr Maliha Rashid of Dhaka Medical College conducted the delivery at the Central Hospital.
Due to apathy of the baby's parents, the news of giving birth of the frozen embryo baby was not publicised, the speakers said.
Dr Abu Hena Abid Zafar, Dr Mostaque Ahmed and Dr Farhana Anam were also present at the press conference.
The frozen embryo technology is similar to 'in vitro fertilisation', a process by which egg cells are fertilised by sperm outside the woman's womb in an artificial environment. The process involves hormonally controlling the ovulation process, removing ova (eggs) from the woman's ovaries and letting sperm fertilise them in a fluid medium. The fertilised egg (zygote) is then transferred to the uterus for a successful pregnancy.
At this technology, the embryos were kept frozen and preserved in a nitrogen can at a temperature of minus 196 degrees centigrade and then implanted to womb.