In the beginning there was Louise..

the world’s first test-tube baby, Louise Brown

A QUARTER of a million UK babies have been born as a result of IVF since the first test tube baby in Oldham.

The 250,000th IVF baby was born in February 2015, according to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), releasing the latest figures.

The British Fertility Society (BFS) welcomed the milestone saying it was "great news" for patients and their families.

The figures show a sharp rise in the number of IVF and other assisted reproduction treatments in the 25 years since the HFEA was established.

In 1991, 6,146 women received 6,609 IVF treatments, resulting in 1,226 live births.

By 2013 this had risen to 52,288 women receiving 67,708 cycles of IVF treatment, from which 15,283 babies were born.

The success rate for IVF has risen from 14 per cent in 1991 to 26.5 per cent in 2014. There were 5,948 treatments in the North-West.

"When the HFEA was set up in 1991 we could never have imagined that over 250,000 babies would be born just 25 years later through assisted reproduction," said HFEA chairwoman Sally Cheshire. "These babies are amongst the five million that have been born worldwide and I am delighted that so many people have been able to have their much-longed-for family."

Headlines were made around the world when Louise Brown became the world's first test-tube baby on July 25, 1978, born at Oldham and District General Hospital, on the site of the Royal Oldham Hospital, after her parents' treatment was successful at Dr Kershaw's Cottage Hospital in Royton - now the familiar hospice. Her parents Lesley and John Brown had been trying to conceive for nine years.