ZAGREB, Oct 23 (Hina) - Some 400 children conceived with the help of in vitro fertilisation at the Clinic for Women's Diseases and Births in Zagreb's Petrova Street on Thursday attended a celebration marking the 20th birthday of
Robert Veriga, the first "test-tube baby" to be born in Croatia on 23 October 1983.
ZAGREB, Oct 23 (Hina) - Some 400 children conceived with the help of
in vitro fertilisation at the Clinic for Women's Diseases and
Births in Zagreb's Petrova Street on Thursday attended a
celebration marking the 20th birthday of Robert Veriga, the first
"test-tube baby" to be born in Croatia on 23 October 1983. #L#
5,100 children have been born at this hospital with the help of the
IVF method, including a large number of twins, triplets and
quadruplets.
The head of the hospital's Institute for Human Reproduction,
Velimir Simunic, who was on the team of doctors who 20 years ago
performed the first IVF, recalled that Croatia was the seventh
country in the world to have a test-tube baby.
Today's celebration, which will be held every year as the
hospital's day, was also dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the
Institute for Human Reproduction.
Fifteen percent of all couples in Croatia suffer from infertility,
and Croatia has all the conditions for adequate treatment. The IMF
method is used in the treatment of 70 percent of all infertility
cases, it was said at the event.
Today women in Croatia on average give birth at the age of 28 to an
average of 1.3 children, which is below the European average. In the
last six years, the number of newly-born babies in the country has
dropped by 20 percent.
(hina) rml