25-year-old woman gives birth from embryo frozen 25 years ago

Newborn infant Emma Wren Gibson and her mother, Tina, already have something in common: They were both conceived in the early 1990s.

In 1992, the embryo that became Emma Gibson was frozen and donated to a religious clinic in Knoxville, Tennessee. In 2017, Tina Gibson, 25, and her husband, Benjamin Gibson, adopted the embryo, and on Nov. 25, they welcomed Emma. "I think she looks pretty perfect to have been frozen all those years ago," Benjamin Gibson said in a statement.

Sean Tipton, spokesman for the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, told NBC News it's possible Emma set a record for being the oldest embryo transferred to a woman's uterus, but there's no way to determine it because of privacy laws. The length of time an embryo is frozen is "not very important," Tipton said, as the risks come when the embryo starts to thaw. If it makes it through that stage, it has the same chances of resulting in a healthy pregnancy as any other embryo.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up