She’s literally the first among equals.
At first glance, Elizabeth Carr appears to be an average, 44-year-old East Coaster. But unbeknownst to most, she’s made an indelible mark on US history as the nation’s first baby born via IVF.
“I really feel like a big older sister to a lot of children around the world,” Carr, a public relations rep and advocate, based in Boston, told Britannica. “I was born on December 28, 1981…the process of in-vitro fertilization had never been done in the United States before.”
“It’s still a technology that, in my mind, is in its infancy,” continued the millennial. “We still have a long way to go.”
Still, her groundbreaking birth has birthed several generations of spouts spawned by science.
In-vitro fertilization (IVF), the process by which an egg and sperm are brought together in a lab to create an embryo, has risen as a booming medical resources for hopeful parents, worldwide, in the decades since Carr’s unconventional conception.
Prior to her monumental arrival, 14 other babies were born through the then-burgeoning tech, including Louise Joy Brown, from the UK, who secured bragging rights the world’s first-ever IVF infant in July 1978.
Now, nearly 50 laters, the pricey procedure — for which a single round can cost upwards of $25,000 in the US — accounts for 2.6% American births, per reports, and boasts global market popularity that’s expected to surge to a whopping $49.12 billion by 2033, owing to technological advancements, as well as an uptick in infertility cases.
But for Carr’s parents, Judith and Roger, infertility wasn’t the issue. Successfully carrying a baby to full-term was the couple’s greatest struggle.
“When my parents were trying to get pregnant, they figured out pretty quickly that my mother could get pregnant but not stay pregnant,” Carr explained, revealing that Judith experienced three ectopic pregnancies — when the fertilized egg implants outside of the uterine cavity, and often in a fallopian tube.
“Her tubes ruptured to the point she had severe internal bleeding,” added Carr. “On a recovery from a surgery, her OBGYN said, ‘Well, I don’t know where you are in thinking about having your family, but I just came back from a conference where I learned about this thing called IVF.’”
“‘And there’s a team, a husband and wife, that are trying to put together a clinic in Norfolk, Virginia, and they’re looking for patients,’” Carr recounted. “‘I think you should apply.’”
At the urging of the specialist, Judith and Roger turned to Howard and Georgeanna Jones, IVF pioneers in the US, for treatment.
“My parents talked about it and thought, ‘What do we have to lose?,’” Carr said. “And about two weeks later, doctors Howard and Georgeanna called my parents and said, ‘How soon can you get here?.’”
Her mom and dad journeyed to Virginia for the reproductive assistance as IVF was “illegal” in their home state of Massachusetts at the time, says Carr. The New England-based commonwealth recently recorded the highest percentage of IVF-related births (5.5%) in the country, according to the CDC.
Mere hours after Carr’s momentous birth, she and her parents were swept up into a whiplashing “media frenzy,” complete with television appearances and photoshoots for the cover of Life Magazine.
“My first press conference was at 3-days-old,” Carr laughed. “This was a big moment in history.”
“The doctors did bully give my parents the option to stay private,” she noted. “But my parents felt very strongly that people should know, ‘Nope. We’re just a normal couple looking to build our family like everybody else. Our child is normal, and walks and talks and sounds just like every other child.’”
Despite the pair’s commitment to spotlighting just how regular their kid is, Carr is often hit with a bizarre inquiry about her anatomy.
“A frequent question I get is, ‘Do you have a belly button?,’” she chuckled. “People actually do ask me that because they think that I was grown in a tube or a lab.”
It’s a misconception — which typically comes with the unpleasant “test-tube baby” tag — that Carr is determined to eradicate.
“Test tubes were not used. A Petri dish was used. Conception happened in the Petri dish,” she insisted. “And then I was put back in my mother’s womb, and nine months later, here I was like everybody else.”
And, in addition to squashing stigmas, Carr hopes to continue promoting the many benefits of IVF.
“The use of [reproductive technology] is not just for the infertility community now,” she said. “It’s people who are going on military deployment and need to time their family building.”
“It’s people who are going through cancer treatments and need to preserve their fertility. It’s people who are LGBTQ who may need an assist from technology in order to build their family,” Carr asserted.
“By last count there was something like 12 million of us IVF babies,” she gushed, “which makes me feel really proud.”
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