Question: how are test tube babys made?

Rebecca Scott answered on 28 Jun 2013:

Test tube babies are from a process called IVF (In Vitro Fertilisation), this method is often used by couples who can’t get pregnant naturally. An egg (or eggs) is collected from the woman’s ovaries (and the doctors try and do this at a natural point in the woman’s menstrual cycle). In the laboratory, doctors use sperm mixed in a special fluid to fertilise the egg(s). The newly fertilised egg is then put back into the woman’s uterus, with the hope that her body will recognise that there is a fertilised egg present and react to the pregnancy. She then grows the baby inside herself like a normal pregnancy. We often refer to IVF babies as ‘test-tube’ babies because the fertilisation of the egg happened in the lab (and not because the baby was grown in a test-tube).