Dreams of having a baby have come true for thousands of families thanks to the Assisted Conception Unit in NHS Tayside.
As the unit (ACU) based at ward 35 in Ninewells Hospital celebrates its 10 year anniversary, the team is proud to have helped more than 2,200 babies be born.
One of them is Harrison Brownlee, born in 2018 after his parents Laura and Michael were supported at the ACU.
Harrison will celebrate his third birthday this month and has recently become a proud big brother to baby Avery.
The current ACU team includes clinical, laboratory, nursing, admin and counselling staff. It also manages the andrology service – dealing with the male reproductive system – for Tayside.
Lead Clinical Embryologist, Ellen Drew says: “I feel very privileged to work in the ACU.
“Assisted reproduction cycles in the UK have always been a team effort and we are all working together in Tayside to help families.
‘Best job in the world’
“I think we have the best job in the world. We help to make babies, and I am so glad to be part of it. I wouldn’t want to do anything else!”
Laura says she and Michael will be “forever grateful” to the ACU team for helping them start a family.
“We had a truly wonderful experience with the ACU in Dundee.
“I had a fairly complicated condition that was causing various problems, including fertility difficulties.
‘Forever grateful’
“Every single person in the ACU made us feel like we were a priority and treated us with so much kindness. I couldn’t single out any individual to thank because they were all fantastic.
“We will be forever grateful to this team of miracle workers for helping us start our family.
“We’re so lucky we had this world class facility right on our doorstep.”
Although the current ACU was opened a decade ago, assisted conception services have been provided in Tayside since the early 1980s.
How the ACU has changed
The original IVF Unit was set up in Ninewells Hospital using just three rooms and shared ward space and theatre time.
The introduction of this IVF Unit led to the first IVF baby born in Scotland in 1984. Ninewells was also the first unit in Scotland to offer NHS-funded IVF treatment.
Consultant Dr Sarah Martins da Silva says: “Infertility treatment can be a difficult and challenging journey. We are proud to have touched the lives and made a difference for so many people and families in Tayside and beyond.”
The IVF lab moved to the ACU in 1994. This area then underwent extensive refurbishment in 2011 leading to the state-of-the-art facility in place today.
In the last 10 years, the ACU has seen exciting developments including the use of time-lapse incubators, which allow embryos to develop in a very quiet, undisturbed environment. Photos are taken of them on a regular cycle for monitoring.
Consultant Gynaecologist Mythili Ramalingam says: “One of the most incredible parts of my job is not only supporting patients through the fertility journey, but I also get to help deliver these babies.”
