Source: Oriental Information
"Wow-wow-wow", at 8:56 on March 10, 1988, with a loud cry, a baby girl weighing 3,900 grams and 53 centimeters tall was born in the maternity ward of Peking University Third Hospital.
The medical staff cheered, and everyone at the scene hugged and wept. The reporter of "News Network", who had already set up the camera in the best position in the delivery room, hurriedly recorded this moment and informed the whole of China in the program that day.
Who is she? Why does it alarm journalists? Why did her birth attract so much attention?
Her name is Zheng Mengzhu, the first "IVF" in China, and her birth represents a historic moment in China's IVF technology.
Her birth was poured into the hearts and minds of a group of people, but the most important were two women, one was her mother Zheng Guizhen, and the other was Professor Zhang Lizhu, the mother of Chinese IVF.
1. Try your best to have a child too
In the 60s of last century, an ordinary rural teacher named Zheng Guizhen was living a tormented life, she had been married to her husband Zuo Changlin for 20 years, and she was never pregnant every day.
Zheng Guizhen has a difficult life, has no parents since she was a child, and grew up with her grandfather. After getting married, the elderly grandfather's biggest wish is that she can have a child of her own and rely on her for old age.
The husband was a small-spoken farmer, and in the countryside of that era, inheritance was a tradition engraved in the bones of men.
But the creation is tricky, when she was young, Zheng Guizhen was infected with disc tuberculosis and blocked bilateral fallopian tubes, and she has not been able to conceive a child.
Seek medical treatment and worship Buddha, find remedies, drink local medicine... Various methods were tried, and the couple fell into endless pain, but there was nothing they could do.
Although Zheng Guizhen, a woman, is desperate, she still does not give up any opportunity, she wants to have a child for herself and leave a descendant for her husband.
Listening to the radio once, Zheng Guizhen learned that an institution in Beijing was studying in vitro fertilization technology, and she was very excited.
Without saying a word, Zheng Guizhen rushed from Gansu to Beijing with her husband, and through various channels, she learned that this technology was a project that Professor Zhang Lizhu's team at Peking University Third Hospital was working on.
However, before her, Professor Zhang's team had no successful cases. When asked if she was afraid, although Zheng Guizhen had the slightest worry, she still signed without hesitation.
She knew that she had run all the way to Beijing, and she couldn't run back without trying, and she regarded this time as the last chance of fate.
In this way, she was admitted to the Third Hospital of Northern Medicine.
After a series of complicated examinations and a long wait, Zheng Guizhen waited for the day of egg retrieval. At that time, there were no advanced instruments and equipment, and egg retrieval required an operation to touch the follicles in the uterus through the abdominal cavity. Zheng Guizhen didn't say a word, endured the pain, and actively cooperated.
After successful egg retrieval, after a long embryo culture process, Zheng Guizhen finally waited for the embryo transfer. Perhaps it was heaven's favor for this desperate woman, and one of the four embryos survived, that is, Zheng Guizhen could finally conceive.
She did not dare to snub, since the embryo was transferred into the uterus for conception, Zheng Guizhen looked forward to this little life growing up every day, pinching her fingers and counting the day of labor.
On March 10, 1988, Zheng Guizhen was pushed into the delivery room and gave birth to the child she had been waiting for for 20 years.
She looked at the little life waving her hands beside her, and she was full of emotion, and she couldn't help but cry with joy.
She has so much to thank, thanks to her husband for his perseverance, thank her perseverance, and most importantly, Professor Zhang Lizhu's wonderful hand and benevolence.
Therefore, she named the child Zheng Mengzhu, Meng is the bud of life, and the pearl is taken from the words in Professor Zhang Lizhu's name, in order to let the world and children remember Professor Zhang forever.
2. Overcome all difficulties, but also engage in IVF technology
Speaking of Professor Zhang Lizhu, she also studied IVF technology by chance.
After receiving her medical doctorate from St. John's University in 1944, she has been engaged in obstetrics and gynecology related research, during which she went to the United Kingdom and the United States to study, learned the world's advanced obstetrics and gynecology technology, and after returning to China, served as the director of obstetrics and gynecology at Peking University Third Hospital.
Originally, Professor Zhang Lizhu only wanted to deepen her professional field, but she was moved by more than a thousand letters from infertility patients, who told Professor Zhang about the pain and anxiety of not having children.
It was from reading the tearful letters that Professor Zhang decided to study IVF technology.
But in that era of poverty and whiteness, IVF was only very popular abroad, and everyone in China had never heard of it, let alone had corresponding instruments and equipment.
According to Professor Zhang Lizhu's recollection, there was not even a petri dish at that time, and the test tube of follicular fluid could only be filled into a thermos cup; The only egg retrieval needle in the whole hospital was brought back by her from abroad, and when it was blunt, she asked the master of the watch shop to help sharpen it; The windows of the laboratory are not closed tightly, and when the wind enters the soil, everyone will seal it with tape.
More difficult than the conditions, there are also fearsome words.
At that time, there were many Chinese, and many people believed that Zhang Lizhu's study was against family planning, and this hat button was not small. After checking the relevant information, Professor Zhang Lizhu believed that family planning advocated eugenics and fewer births, and she did not violate the policy.
Then someone said that IVF is a child who jumps out of the tube, and she tirelessly popularizes science, IVF actually eventually grows up in the mother's womb.
Although the conditions are rudimentary, although there are many obstacles, since it has begun, it is necessary to persevere. Professor Zhang led the team to research day and night, but unfortunately the first 12 infertile patients failed.
The 13th patient received by Professor Zhang was Zheng Guizhen, seeing that the other party trusted so much, Professor Zhang did not dare to slack, she threw herself on Zheng Guizhen, thinking of fulfilling a dream for patients and a dream for herself.
Although the process of egg retrieval and embryo culture was smooth, the embryo transfer still stumped Professor Zhang, who at that time did not have a laboratory for embryo transfer, and Professor Zhang could only borrow the laboratory of Liu Bin, a professor of reproductive medicine, and cooperated with Professor Liu to complete the crucial step of embryo transfer.
After all this, Professor Zhang did not breathe a sigh of relief, she left Zheng Guizhen, who entered the process of conception, in Beijing, to take care of her life while observing her pregnancy response.
More than 9 months have passed, and Professor Zhang waited for the important moment when Zheng Guizhen was in labor. After a lot of battles, she is still tense in her nerves, and she is worried that she will be born with a cleft lip and palate or other disability diseases, and she will not be able to explain it to the people of the whole country.
The crying was loud, and the moment the white and fat child was taken out, Professor Zhang finally showed a gratifying smile.
The birth of Zheng Mengzhu has made thousands of infertile families see hope, and infertile couples who came to find Professor Zhang flocked to it. She has truly become the mother of IVF in China.
3. With the heart in mind, Xiao Zheng Mengzhu has gradually grown up
After being born, the little Zheng Mengzhu stayed in Beijing for two months under the request and care of Professor Zhang, and then returned to her hometown in Gansu with her parents.
After returning to Gansu, Xiao Zheng Mengzhu was also treated favorably all the way, and the relevant medical staff followed her up for a long time.
Physical development, IQ, language ability... All within the scope of monitoring and research by the medical team, fortunately, everything is normal, and it can be said that the first IVF case was very successful.
Even so, Zheng Mengzhu's childhood was still looked at strangely. At school, malicious classmates mocked her for jumping out of a pipe, and neighbors whispered in private that the child should not grow up.
She ignored all this, and Zheng Mengzhu, who was already sensible, knew that in order to give birth to herself, how much effort her mother and Professor Zhang had put in, she would not be hit by rumors.
In this way, Zheng Mengzhu grew up healthy, during which Professor Zhang Lizhu always encouraged her to study well, receive higher education, and become a useful person to society in the future.
At the age of 20, Zheng Mengzhu was admitted to Xijing College. It was also this year that the Third Hospital of Beijing Medical University organized a celebration, and the hospital invited those children born through IVF technology to return to the place where their lives originated, including Zheng Mengzhu.
Professor Zhang once again encouraged Zheng Mengzhu to study hard and help more people through the knowledge she has learned in the future.
In the blink of an eye, Zheng Mengzhu graduated, and miraculously, she also became a doctor and returned to work in the Third Hospital of Beijing Medicine, where she was born.
Now a staff member in the archives department of the reproductive center of the Third Hospital of Beijing Hospital, she said that her job is to help people like her mother, although not great, but very meaningful.
She felt that Professor Zhang Lizhu selflessly helped their family, so that her parents could fulfill their wishes and let them have a more complete happiness. Now she also has to learn to give back, which is not only Professor Zhang's teaching to her, but also her own wish.
In 2019, 31-year-old Zheng Mengzhu also ushered in her own little life, and she successfully gave birth to a big fat boy in the Third Hospital of Beijing Hospital.
The first case of IVF to deliver a baby is another major breakthrough, which Dr. Zhao Yangyu, who helped produce Zheng Mengzhu, said marked the maturity of IVF technology in China.
In 2021, "Tencent People" produced a documentary called "The Forerunner", in which Zheng Mengzhu was invited. In the program, Zheng Mengzhu told the audience about the child's condition, now a 2-year-old son, lively and cute, growing up healthily.
I have to sigh the magic of fate, 30 years of reincarnation, under the insistence of my mother, under the difficult conditions of Professor Zhang Lizhu's team working day and night, the little baby cultivated through test tube has become a family and have the next generation.
This is something that should be remembered by history.