Cirrus@Austlit

'More than eight million babies have been born through in vitro fertilisation since Louise Brown, the first baby to be conceived through IVF procedures, was born in England in July 1978. In Melbourne, the late gynaecologist Carl Wood and his colleagues were not far behind, with Australia’s first IVF baby, Candice Reed, born almost two years later. Over time, proscriptive access laws have gradually been relaxed to allow single women and lesbian couples to have access to IVF, and expectations of conceiving a family have grown exponentially.'  (Introduction)