Well, we may not be there yet, but we are getting there gradually. Success Nwogu of PUNCH has reported the delivery of the first successful baby, a bouncing baby boy, a product of the first successful attempt at invitro fertilization (IVF) by the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Ilorin, Kwara State. An elated mother, Mrs. Ramat Jamiu faced childlessness and all its associate troubles for nine good years. With this heartwarming feat, UITH has joined the elite league of teaching hospitals in Nigeria where IVF as a procedure has been carried out. These are:

-Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Lagos.

-University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State.

- Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife, Osun State.

Mrs. Jamiu was initially reluctant to try out the procedure (some Nigerian women and fear fear when it comes to medical procedures sha…lol) but her husband, a professor of Islamic and Arabic Studies at the Kwara State University supported and encouraged her. Before then, the couple had tried private hospitals in Kano, Lagos and Abuja, spent tons of money but with no positive results until the husband suggested that they tried out a teaching hospital (in my own opinion, Nigerian teaching hospitals have the potentiality to become some of the very best in the world, the brains are there but it is very unfortunate that the environment is not always an enabling one). Hear her:

“It is a shameful experience not to have a baby after several years of marriage. But thank God, I am happy now that I have a baby of my own. I have been to hospitals across the country. I spent so much money, but in vain. Eventually God answered my prayer and things worked well for me at UITH. For the couples who are having difficulty in child birth, they should know that God is capable of giving them a child. When God says your time has come, nothing will stop it.”

She also advised Nigerians to have more trust in their public health institutions and that there may not be the need to travel out for some treatments that can be handled here at cheaper rates. (Personally, I have nothing against all she has said just that I don’t see anything shameful in a woman childless after years of marriage, afterall she doesn’t manufacture the babies. I want to believe that it is the colouration that the society has given it. I love kids but nothing shameful about a childless marriage. And as for those who fly to Berlin after every bout of malaria, I hope you are listening to her? )

According to Dr. Lukman Omokanye, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at the UITH, Mrs. Jamiu was managed at UITH for one year before she gave birth via a caesarian section last Friday. He said: “Infertility in marriage is not just for the woman; both the husband and the wife must be involved to achieve any form of success. That is what happened in this case; we had her husband cooperation all the way.

Fortunately we found out that the husband’s sperm, in spite of his age, could fertilise his wife’s eggs and that she also had viable eggs that could be fertilised by sperm. So, we were expecting a fruitful result. The procedure is to get fertilisable eggs from her. It took us one month.

“First, she was down-regulated with a drug called Suprefact® for 14 days. We prepared her for eggs collection and subsequently we did micro epididymal sperm aspiration to obtain sperm from the spouse to fertilise her eggs through a procedure called intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection.

“We injected the sperm into each egg. This was then incubated for 72 hours and confirmed evidence of fertilisation. After 72 hours, it became an embryo. This was later transferred into her womb. That is what eventually developed into pregnancy. Pregnancy was confirmed after two weeks of transfer into the womb.”

“We confirmed that she was carrying a baby boy after 18 weeks. She was meant to deliver on August 16, but this kind of special baby could not be allowed to go through the stress of labour. Another thing about this pregnancy is that the baby was coming as a breech (a baby comes with the feet as opposed to the head). However, there were no hitches during delivery. He weighed 3.25kg. This is a memorable day in the history of UITH as the centre also witnessed the inauguration of several projects.”

The pregnancy was without complications.

Well, even if IVF is a routine in many parts of the world, every nation started from somewhere. I am glad we are making progress even if it is painfully slow. It is my hope that the IVF process, especially in the tertiary health institutions will be very cheap so that even the poor women will also be able to afford it, and not just an exclusivity for those who can afford it. Some days ago, I was reading of Indian doctors trying to slash the current rate of about $1200 for IVF to about half of that in a decade so that more women can afford it. I hope this procedure becomes more widespread (quality, not quantity anyways) and a lot more affordable (in private clinics in Nigeria, women pay for as much as N600,000 to over N1 million for IVF treatment. That’s about $4,000 – $6,666+). For many women, this cost of IVF is understandably prohibitive and finds that abhorrent. But with this kain ‘gonment’ we get, one may have to wait a long while.

As for the UITH team, is very proud of you. If we do not celebrate our own in Nigeria, who will?

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THANKS FOR YOUR TIME.
SOURCE: http://www..com/uith-celebrates-first-test-tube-baby/

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Congratulations! She is brave in announcing that she did ivf. People still hide that fact in Nigeria.

Wow. This is good