Chinese mainland's 1st test-tube baby becomes mother

BEIJING - Thirty-one years after her birth via external fertilization and embryo transplantation, Zheng Mengzhu, China's first test-tube baby, gave birth on Monday in a Beijing hospital.

At 8:34 am, Zheng gave birth to a boy through caesarean section, said Zhao Yangyu, head of obstetrics at Peking University Third Hospital who performed the surgery. The boy weighs 3.85 kg, which is similar to his mother's birth-weight.

The baby was in a horizontal position when he was in the womb, a situation that demanded a C-section, Zhao explained.

"The surgery went rather well. Both the mother and the baby are in stable condition," she said.

Zheng was born on March 10, 1988 in the same hospital as the first-ever test tube baby on Chinese mainland, 10 years after the first such baby was born in Britain.

Qiao Jie, director of the hospital, said the successful birth of Zheng's child marks another milestone in the history of assisted reproduction in China.

"China's test tube baby technology has reached leading levels in the world," she said.

Qiao said people are worried about whether a person born through the test-tube technology can naturally reproduce. Though many test-tube babies became adults and had their own children, the figure however is not large. "The birth today is further proof of the safety of assisted reproduction technology."

Zheng Mengzhu is an employee at the hospital's reproduction center. Her mother, Zheng Guizhen, was a primary school teacher in North China's Gansu province. Unable to conceive a baby 20 years after her marriage, the mother, then 39 years old, received external fertilization and embryo transplantation in the hospital.