By Catie Beck and Doha Madani - NBC News
A Tennessee couple again broke the record for the longest frozen embryo to result in a birth by welcoming their daughter Molly in October.
Tina and Ben Gibson used a process called
"embryo adoption,"
which allows parents to receive donated embryos, they explained to NBC News on Wednesday.
Molly is the
second embryo adopted by the couple
through the National
Embryo
Donation Center.
Their daughter Emma was born in 2017 from an embryo frozen for 24 years.
[Santa Claus reinvents himself to reach the little ones this Christmas with coronavirus]
Although it is not the path she expected to take when she began looking to build a family, Tina Gibson said that being the mother of two girls is "
a great miracle
."
The process was a "leap of faith" for her after struggling with infertility.
"I was so scared to open my heart to the possibility of having a pregnancy," said Tina Gibson.
“I was very afraid that it would not work.
And then [my heart] would be ripped out again. "
She also said that the experience made her more appreciative of her daughters.
[The reality and fiction of 'The Crown' keep the monarchy in suspense]
The clinic team is "excited," said the president of the National Embryo Donation Center, Dr. Jeffrey Keenan.
"Embryo adoption is a fantastic option for many couples,"
said Kennan, "it is an exceptionally successful and very inexpensive option, and sometimes it really is the only option for couples where the mother can experience pregnancy and pregnancy. birth of a baby ”.
The center
specializes in saving embryos that are about to be destroyed
, allowing families to donate fertilized eggs to others who cannot produce healthy embryos.
In vitro fertilization of adopted embryos has allowed the Gibson family to have their daughters, Emma and Molly.
Molly's embryo, which froze in 1992, is the oldest embryo to have resulted in a birth, according to the University of Tennessee Medical Library.
The fact that Molly was born from such an old embryo, frozen under less reliable technology than currently available, is a good sign that there might not be a "true time limit" on
how long a frozen embryo can remain viable
, he said. Kennan.
"We expect even greater viability," he added, "and we hope this will be a relatively common story in 27 years."
