America's first test-tube baby delivers a son

When Elizabeth Carr was born in Norfolk nearly 29 years ago, journalists from across the globe were on hand to chronicle the birth of the country's first test-tube baby.

On Thursday, that celebrated baby - now Elizabeth Comeau - gave birth to her first child, 7-pound, 12-ounce Trevor James Comeau, in Concord, Mass., with far less fanfare.

"He's wonderful," she said in a phone interview Friday. "He has a full head of dark hair, just like his mother and father, and we are in love with him. He's perfect."

Comeau, now a journalist with The Boston Globe, broke the story herself in a first-person account she crafted before going into labor, and which she updated by e-mail from the hospital Thursday.

"Now, nearly 29 years from my birth as the first test-tube baby in the United States, I have my own baby," she wrote for The Globe. The baby was conceived naturally, and Comeau had a normal pregnancy and delivery, "proving (I hope) that I'm just like everyone else."

Elizabeth was born Dec. 28, 1981, at what is now Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, after Eastern Virginia Medical School doctors Howard and Georgeanna Jones performed the country's first successful in-vitro fertilization procedure at their clinic.

The birth made headlines around the world with Howard Jones giving a news conference shortly after the birth. "We are delighted to announce the arrival of Elizabeth Jordan Carr," Jones said. "She is a normal, healthy baby, 5 pounds, 12 ounces."

The IVF technique, in which the egg and sperm are fertilized in a petri dish and transferred to the mother's womb, became a standard procedure, earning the husband-and-wife doctor team a place in science history.

On Friday, Jones, now 99, said Comeau's parents called him when she was admitted to the hospital earlier in the week.

Jones, who still lives in Norfolk, is like a family member, calling Comeau on her birthdays and holidays.

"Like all grandparents, I was concerned that everything go all right," said Jones, an EVMS professor emeritus who still keeps regular hours at the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine. His wife died in 2005.

Jones spoke to Comeau on Thursday morning, hours after her baby's birth at 2:05 a.m.

"The fact that she is an IVF baby is secondary, it's incidental," Jones said. "This just confirms that IVF children are as normal as can be."

When Elizabeth was born in 1981, a PBS television crew was on hand to film a documentary. A picture of her as a baby - clad only in a diaper - was on the cover of Life magazine.

The audience for Trevor's birth was smaller: Comeau; her husband, David; and the people who helped deliver the baby.

Both sets of grandparents sat out the birth in the waiting room.

"God bless them, they stayed until 3 in the morning to see him," Comeau said.

Elizabeth was born by cesarean section, a surgical procedure, but noted that her son's birth came after 19 hours of labor.

"Dr. Jones thought that was excessive and so did I," she said with a laugh.

Comeau said she still feels a strong connection to Norfolk, where she has often returned for IVF baby reunions and to visit Jones: "It's where I started, and where I spent many summer holidays."

She worked as an intern for The Virginian-Pilot in 2003.

In Friday's account for The Boston Globe, Comeau wrote that she and her husband knew their lives might once again be "thrust into the spotlight" when she became pregnant. Rather than have another journalist write the story, she chose to do it herself.

"I follow the same principle my parents did: If my story helps couples or families learn about in-vitro fertilization, then the loss of privacy is worthwhile," she wrote. "People who have fertility issues deserve to know they can have healthy, normal babies."

For Jones, the birth brought a sense of joy as well as relief:

"We will have a quiet celebration of contentment that all is well."

Elizabeth Simpson, (757) 446-2635, elizabeth.simpson@pilotonline.com