The birth of a child on October 4 marked a first for Bengal’s government healthcare.

She is the first in-vitro fertilisation or IVF baby in a government hospital in the state.

An expensive treatment at private facilities, this baby girl was born to a couple from South 24-Parganas for free at the IVF facility of SSKM Hospital on Friday.

A 28-year-old woman and her 34-year-old husband, a small tailor by profession who earns ₹10,000 a month, were married for five years but did not have a child. They had come to the Centre of Excellence In Assisted Reproductive Technology, a joint collaboration between SSKM and Ghosh Dastidar Institute for Fertility Research, in January 2023.

The first IVF child in India was born in Calcutta in 1978. Subhash Mukherjee, the
pioneer in IVF treatment in India, had created the first IVF here.

However, IVF treatment has been out of reach for many because of the expense involved. According to IVF experts, it costs more than ₹1.5 lakh for IVF treatment at a private facility.

The couple from South 24-Parganas could not afford the expense at a private healthcare institute.

“On February 9 this year, we did an ultrasound-guided egg retrieval. It is the process in which the eggs from the ovary are taken out under ultrasound guidance and fertilised in the laboratory with the husband’s sperm,” said Sudarsan Ghosh Dastidar, director of the Centre of Excellence In Assisted Reproductive Technology.

Fertilised embryo were later transferred back into the uterus of the mother, a procedure called ultrasound-guided embryo transfer.

“After two weeks, blood tests revealed she was pregnant,” said Sudarsan.

In September, the mother was diagnosed with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) or high blood sugar level because of the pregnancy. She was being monitored and complained of reduced foetal movement on Thursday night.

“It was more than 36 weeks of pregnancy. So, we decided to deliver the child on Friday. A 3.09kg girl child was delivered by caesarean section,” said Biswanath Ghosh Dastidar, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at SSKM who performed the cesarean section. “Both the mother and the child are healthy now,” he said.

Thirty more women are pregnant through IVF at the SSKM centre, Sudarsan said.

“There are 3,200 couples in queue for IVF at the centre,” he said.

State health department officials said because of the long waiting list, the government is using the laboratory of Ghosh Dastidar Institute for Fertility Research.

The outpatient department of the joint collaboration started at SSKM in May 2022.

“We are setting up the centre at SSKM at a cost of ₹9 crore. It will take another six months for the facility to become fully operational,” a senior health department official said.

He said the government was paying a subsidy of ₹1 lakh for each IVF treatment.