Health World's first IVF baby backs campaign

SHE was the first person in the world to be conceived and born using the technique that came to be known as IVF. And now Bristol's Louise Brown is at the forefront of a new campaign which aims to raise awareness about falling fertility rates, and calls for would-be parents across the world to have better and more affordable access to the technology that brought her into the world.

- Tristan CORK

Louise is now 47, and in her lifetime, the average number of children women around the world are having in their lifetime has plummeted. In the years before she was born in 1978, it peaked at more than five, but had dropped to below four by the time she was named as the first 'test-tube baby.

The most recent statistics show that it is getting very close to two babies per woman - and will soon drop below two. That's already happening in many developed countries, leaving societies with falling populations, and a huge demographic timebomb as the number of younger people declines and the number of elderly people needing care grows.