1st U.S. Frozen Embryo Baby Born in L.A.

The nation’s first baby to begin as a frozen embryo conceived in a laboratory dish, frozen and eventually planted in the mother was born Wednesday at a Los Angeles hospital, it was disclosed.

The boy, born at an unidentified hospital, reportedly weighed 9 pounds, 10 ounces.

The mother, identified only as Monique, told KCBS-TV that she and her husband, Gary, had not actually expected the transplant, by Dr. Richard Marrs of the in vitro fertilization and embryo replacement program at Good Samaritan Hospital, to work.

“We just actually were humoring him by having this done,” she told the television station. She said she had been trying for 15 years to have a baby through conventional methods.

When Marrs told The Times in late March of the impending birth, he said a second California woman had become pregnant through the same technique and was expected to deliver in December. In Louisiana, two other women were reported pregnant after receiving a frozen embryo transplants through the Fertility Institute of New Orleans.

Both California women requested that their names, places of residence and descriptions of their families remain secret. In each case, Marrs said in March, the woman’s egg was fertilized by her husband’s sperm.

The two were the first to become pregnant among 30 women Marrs had implanted with frozen embryos.

Several other babies have been born as the result of the method, but they were in France, England, Holland and Australia.