Baby Born from 20-Year-Old Frozen Embryo

Earlier this year, a baby boy was born from a 20-year-old frozen embryo, reports the journal Fertility and Sterility; 20 years is the longest ever duration between cryopreservation of an embryo and birth.

The 42-year-old mother of the boy, who is not named in the study, began trying to get pregnant using IVF ten years ago. At the time, she and her husband received embryos from a heterosexual couple who had themselves undergone IVF.

That couple had anonymously donated their leftover embryos after the woman successfully gave birth. Thing was, they did so in 1990 – meaning that the boy just born to the woman in the study has a sibling out there somewhere who was conceived at the same time but is 20 years [older].

The previous record was 13 years.

Britain's first iPhone baby due

The couple had tried for three years to conceive before they heard about the fertility app and downloaded it to her iPhone. The 30-year-old entered her body temperature daily and the app calculated when she would be most fertile.

A relative said: "She followed the advice and within two months she was expecting. We're all overjoyed." The mother-to-be does not want to be identified until after the baby has been born.

The relative said: "It's due any day. Every one's keeping their fingers crossed there are no complications. She's proud to say it will be an 'iPhone baby'. Without the app she might not have fallen pregnant."

Last week an iPhone application that claims to be able to tell parents what their baby's cries mean was launched.

The Cry Translator app, which costs INR 1600 is said by its designers to be 96 per cent accurate in interpreting cries of distress from babies.

The program uses the iPhone's microphone to receive the sound, analyzes it, and displays information about what it means on the screen.

Researchers led by Dr Antonio Portugal Ramírez, a Spanish paediatrician, developed the project after finding that babies' wails could be broken down into five separate categories.

They learned that all babies, regardless of the language they are exposed to at home, have the same distinctive cries to indicate whether they are hungry, annoyed, tired, stressed or bored.