Tripura Gets its First-Ever Test-Tube Baby

Agartala, March 13, 2020:

On Thursday, in a remarkable achievement in terms of medical science, the Northeast Indian state of Tripura got its first test tube baby delivered in an Agartala based private hospital.

After the birth of the baby, it was shifted to the Tripura Medical College and Dr. BRAM hospital for better pediatric observation. According to reports, the baby was shifted to a "specialist hospital" as it weighed less than usual.

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Dr. Partha Pratim Saha who treated the expectant mother told Inside Northeast, “Both the baby and the mother are out of danger”. Dr. Saha also informed that the baby was expected to be delivered on May next, but due to some medical urgency, the operation had be performed on Thursday night.

According to sources, the couple got married 9 years back and when the wife failed to conceive after repeated attempts, they approached the IVF clinic run by Dr. Saha last year. All the complex procedures—including formation of the fetus, transplantation and the final surgery were been performed under the observation of Dr. Saha.

This development has been reported merely a day after the first ever cochlear implant surgery in Agartala's GB Hospital, and that too free of cost.

Pushpita Paul, a 3 year old toddler could not hear her mother calling. She was not even able to react to the noises – sudden closure of doors dropping of utensil or the soothing melody of birds. The child hailing from remote Paharmura under Khowai district was suffering from a serious cochlear disease. However, after the complex procedure, the child is now able to hear.

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Pushpita’s father Pankaj Paul said, “Since Pushpita was one and half years old, we noticed that she could not react as per the sounds. We waited for few months and started consulting with doctors. Finally, we were informed that an implant surgery could only help her to hear normally. But, then our financial situation was not that strong that we could have afforded the surgery.” Meanwhile, Pankaj’s wife who had been spotted busy with Pushpita today said that she was very happy that her girl could react like other children.

Test Tube Babies - What You Need to Know:

The term “test tube baby” means a child that is conceived outside a woman’s body. A more complete definition specifies test tube babies as being conceived in a laboratory through the scientific process of In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF). The use of the words “test tube” is also erroneous because, right from the beginning decades back with Edwards and Steptoe, the lab instrument that they used to mix the eggs and sperm in is a Petri dish.

It can be stated therefore that “test tube baby” is an oversimplified term for a child born through IVF. Hence, there is actually no difference between IVF and test tube baby.

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