Tina Wren gave birth to a daughter last month. However, that is not why this story is making headlines. Tina was twenty-five years old at the time, and her daughter was twenty-four. How was that possible? How could the baby named Emma be only one year younger than her mother?

Embryo adoption

Tina and her husband Benjamin had been married for seven years. They thought they could not have children because Benjamin has cystic fibrosis. The disease often leads to infertility. The Tennessee couple had such a love for children that they fostered a few of them for a while.

Tina's father asked his daughter and his son-in-law to consider embryo adoption. That's the process which allows couples to donate their unused frozen embryos so others can give birth through in vitro fertilization, often shortened to IVF.

The childless couple took the advice of Tina's father and went to the National Embryo Donation Center (NEDC) in Knoxville. Tina and Benjamin adopted an embryo that was frozen 24 years ago just one year after Tina was born. According to the research staff at the University of Tennessee Preston Medical Library, baby Emma is the first to hold the all-time record for the longest-frozen embryo to be born.

The case is making headlines because Tina was 25 when she got pregnant with the 24-year-old embryo.

That means Tina is just one year older than the baby she gave birth to.

Mother and daughter

Tina gave birth to a healthy baby from the embryo she and Benjamin adopted.

Tina put it into perspective when she told reporters that she and Emma could have been best friends since they are so close in age. Instead, they are now mother and daughter.

Emma's parents think she is a miracle. Her father joked that his daughter looks perfect after been frozen for so many years. Tina still can't believe she carried and gave birth to a baby after having had a desire to start a family for so long.

Emma was frozen on October 14, 1992, and thawed by NEDC lab director Carol Sommerfelt on March 13, 2017. Tina became pregnant with Emma as a result of the frozen embryo transfer, or FET. The entire process was conducted by Dr. Jeffrey Keenan.

Dr. Keenan wants others to learn from this miraculous story. He wants others to know that this is an option for other childless couples. He also wants other couples who have frozen embryos to consider putting them up for adoption so they can be given life like Emma. This would bring joy to so many other couples like the Gibsons.

What do you think about this heartwarming story?
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