Pune gets its first baby through vitrification

Times of India: The Khude couple could not contain their excitement on Monday when they saw their little bundle of joy. Their son is no less than a miracle. He became the city’s first vitrified baby to be born at the Oosite in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) clinic.

Breaking new grounds in medical history, the new embryo freezing technique gave the childless Khude couple a healthy baby boy after 18 years of marriage. “This is the happiest day of my life and my joy has no bounds today,” said mother Sangeeta, exactly a day after delivering the baby.

For 18 frustrating years, the Khude couple tried but could not conceive. Even though they met with a slew of fertility doctors and experts, no one was able to give them any answers. They had given up all hope till about a year ago when they were directed to this IVF, a test tube baby clinic.

Shrikant Yatnale, chief embryologist who operated on the mother, said, “This is our first success using vitrification and with this we have proved that we are on a par with centres all over the world.”

Dilip Patil, director, Trivector Scientific, the 15-year old institution that sets up IVF labs for hospitals and other medical institutions said, “This is the first such baby reportedly born using this technique. It is a special technique and there have been cases of such pregnancies in Mumbai, but for Pune this is the first such reported baby.”

The vitrification process was first successfully used in Japan in 2001. The technique is only about two years old in India.

Rajesh Balkrishna, who heads Oosite IVF, said, “When the couple came to us, we realised that a frozen donated embryo was the only alternative for this couple, given their age and financial constraints. We had some donated embryos that we had previously frozen using the vitrification technique. We explained the situation to the couple, who readily agreed to undergo the procedure.”

The technique is also said to be cheaper and costs just Rs 15,000. Nandkumar Khude, the father of the newly born said, “We were willing to try anything really, both of us wanted children. Not that we had any option, besides the one suggested by the doctor. We just gave it a shot.”

According to Balakrishna, a similar case was reported in Thane only a month ago and this is the second such case in western Maharashtra.

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