A woman with strong Donegal roots has created a first in Australia after giving birth to a baby girl using embryo genetic testing in the US.
Jacinta cradles her miracle baby
After 17 unsuccessful rounds of IVF, Jacinta Bant turned to the latest technology and now has her own little miracle.
Jacinta is the daughter of John Collum from Donegal Street in Ballybofey and she still has lots of relations in the Twin Towns.
Jacinta explained “We’ve been trying for four and a half years to bring Rubi into the world.
“Stopping was never an option for me because I knew I would never get this child.”
In a last ditch effort to get their baby, she and her partner Murray turned to new technology in the US called SPN Array.
In an Australian first, geneticists at Monash IVF sent biopsies from five of Ms Bant’s embryos to the US for chromosomal testing.
One was healthy enough to implant.
Currently Melbourne’s Monash IVF is the only IVF clinic offering SPN Array, but the technology will eventually be available around the country.
“It is the first one in Australia that’s been born from this technology so it is a miracle baby,” Dr Lynn Burmeister from Monash IVF said.
SPN Array costs $3500 and is suitable for women who have had recurrent miscarriages, multiple failed IVF cycles or are older that 35.