A COUPLE who had been childless for eight years has become the latest beneficiary of in-vitro fertilisation with the birth last December of test tube triplets.

The triplets, a boy and two girls, were born after 35.5 weeks of pregnancy to Mr. and Mrs. Emmanuel George, aged 38 and 32 years, at Roding Medical Centre, Lagos.

The boy who weighed 1.9 kg and the girls, 1.7kg and 1.5kg were delivered through caesarian section after a comprehensive IVF treatment by a team of five doctors.

The team led by a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, Dr. Faye Iketubosin, included Dr. Adewunmi Adeyemi-Bere, Dr. Fidelis Akabosun (both consultant obstetrician and gynaecologists); an embryologist from the United Kingdom, Mr. Bryan Woodward and a resident embryologist, Miss Omowunmi Taiwo.

The IVF technique was developed in the 1970s. The first independently investigated test tube baby in Nigeria was Baby Hanatu, who was born on February 11, 1998, at an Abuja hospital.

Before Baby Hanatu a Lagos-based fertility expert had claimed delivery of the first test tube babies in 1987.

The procedure is slowly catching on in Nigeria unlike in some parts of the developed world where thousands of babies are born each year through the process to otherwise infertile couples.

Iketubosin told The Guardian that the triplets were conceived through conventional IVF and do not stand any risk of developing abnormalities in future.

According to the leader of the team, there are several different techniques, but the conventional process involves the woman taking fertility drugs to help her produce more eggs. The eggs are then harvested and fertilized outside the womb in the laboratory.

Subsequently, he said, the woman is given hormone drugs to prepare her womb to receive the fertilized eggs. The fertilized eggs, he continued, are placed inside the womb and a normal pregnancy follows.

However, according to Iketubosin, one of the biggest and most controversial advances in IVF in recent years has been the introduction of a technique called intracytoplastic sperm injection (ICSI).

This, he says, works, by injecting a single sperm directly into an egg.

Iketubosin observes that some people fear the technique could increase the risk of genetic defect that make the donor's infertility being passed on to babies.

He disclosed that his team recorded 50 per cent success rate with the first set of couples it treated with the IVF procedure.

Iketubosin narrates the process:

"The couple came to us sometime in 2001, but we actually started treatment in March 2002 with giving the woman a course of injection from the 21st day of her cycle.

"After about one week, she had her period and did a scan to look at the lining of the womb to make sure it was shedding properly and the ovaries to make sure there were no cysts and were in a position to be stimulated.

"She was then placed on another course of injection for 12 days and in-between she had ultra scan to monitor the follicles and when the follicles were large enough she had the final injection. The egg collection took place 36 hours after the last injection.

He continued: "We aspirated about eight eggs from her. Of the eight, we had six that were fertilized through conventional IVF and we replaced three embryos into the womb.

"She was placed on another medication to provide support for the pregnancy and two weeks after the transfer, she tested positive to a pregnancy test.

"We did not know she was carrying triplets until the eighth week after a second scan. At some stage she was admitted into the hospital for bed rest. When she got to 351/2 weeks, she broke her waters and we had to deliver her immediately."

The joyous mother, Mrs. George, who spoke to The Guardian during a visit to the triplets, said was full of praises and thanks to God for giving her the opportunity to become a mother after eight years of childlessness.

Two of the triplets, a boy and a girl, were already sucking away at their mother's breasts while one of the girls still needed special attention.

On the cost of IVF treatment, Iketubosin had this to say: "IVF all over the world is expensive. The reasons for that are quite obvious. First, the technique is expensive in terms of laboratory input. The input from the laboratory constitutes the major cost.

"The other angle is the drugs. On the average, IVF treatment in Nigeria will cost you something in the neighbourhood of N500,000."

There are increasing claims of proficiency at procuring test tube babies by various doctors and medical centres in the country nowadays with the fees charged gradually rising from around N200,000 to about N800,000. This is raising concern among medical authorities.

General Hospital in Gwagwalada, Abuja and several other medical centres have however recorded multiple test tube births.