On the other hand, in the other three women who went through the procedure at Dr Lumbasyo's Nairobi IVF Centre Limited, the transferred embryos were not implanted, and therefore pregnancy did not take place.

Most of the 12 couples are said to have painstakingly raised, through savings, at least Sh 300, 000 needed to help them fulfill their desire to have a baby through IVF, an assisted reproduction.

IVF is a procedure whereby eggs are taken from a woman, fertilized in the laboratory using her partner's sperm, with the resulting embryos being transferred back to her uterus, two to five days later. This transfer is to help the embryo develop normally. The technique is usually used to treat both women and men who are infertile. But it is normally the treatment of choice for a woman with blocked, damaged, or absent fallopian tubes, the avenue through which the egg travels from the ovary to the uterus. The first IVF baby in the world was born in July, 1978 in England. Though a major breakthrough, studies show that babies born using the technique have a higher risk of birth defects and low birth weight. Scientists are yet to establish the reasons behind this. What is however clear is that the high fee needed for one to benefit from the technique is used to help the doctors screen a couple for infertility, undertake the IVF procedure, and provide drugs, among other things.

Interestingly, this high fees and the failure to get a baby in the first four Kenyan couples has not deterred the doctor and other couples who are determined to have a baby through IVF.