---
title: "Infertile Couple Gives Birth to “Three-Parent Baby”"
description: "## Happy Birthday"
date: "2019-04-11"
modified: "2019-04-11"
authors:
  - name: "Kristin Houser"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kristin"
url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/infertile-couple-birth-three-parent-baby"
categories:
  - "Health & Medicine"
tags:
  - "fertility"
  - "In vitro fertilization"
  - "the digest"
  - "three parent baby"
---

# Infertile Couple Gives Birth to “Three-Parent Baby”

![A Greek couple just gave birth to a three-parent baby, the first conceived as part of a clinical trial to treat infertility.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/infertile-couple-birth-three-parent-baby.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Becca Lee/Corinne Kutz/Tag Hartman-Simkins\</em\>*

## Happy Birthday

On Tuesday, a couple [gave birth](<https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/apr/11/baby-with-dna-from-three-people-born-in-greece-ivf>) to what researchers are calling a "three-parent baby" — giving new hope to infertile couples across the globe.

After four cycles of in vitro fertilization failed to result in a pregnancy, the Greek couple enrolled in a clinical trial for mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT) — meaning doctors placed the nucleus from the mother's egg into a donor egg that had its nucleus removed. Then they fertilized the egg with sperm from the father and [implanted it into the mother](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/three-parent-baby-infertile-couple>).

Due to this procedure, the six-pound baby boy has DNA from both his mother and father, as well as a tiny bit from the woman who donated the egg.

## Greek Life

The Greek baby wasn't the first "three-parent baby" born after his parents underwent MRT — that honor goes to the offspring of a [Jordanian woman](<https://futurism.com/baby-with-dna-from-three-people-born-using-first-of-its-kind-fertilization-method>) who gave birth in 2016.

However, in her case and [others that followed it](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/two-women-undergo-three-parent-baby-therapy-uk>), doctors used the technique to prevent a baby from inheriting a parent's genetic defect. This marked the first time a couple used MRT as part of a clinical trial to treat infertility.

"Our excellent collaboration and this exceptional result will help countless women to realise their dream of becoming mothers with their own genetic material," Nuno Costa-Borges, co-founder of Embryotools, one of the companies behind the trial, said in a [statement](<https://www.iolife.eu/news-press/news/press-release-9-april-2019/>).

**READ MORE:** [Baby with DNA from three people born in Greece](<https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/apr/11/baby-with-dna-from-three-people-born-in-greece-ivf>) \[*The Guardian*\]

**More on three-parent babies:** *[An Infertile Couple Is Now Pregnant With a “Three-Parent Baby”](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/three-parent-baby-infertile-couple>)*

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjhouser>)