Born at 7:46 a.m. at Norfolk General Hospital, Virginia, as the first child in the U.S. conceived through in vitro fertilization.
Elizabeth Jordan Carr was born at 7:46 a.m. on December 28, 1981, at Norfolk General Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia, weighing 5 pounds 12 ounces. She was delivered by Dr. Mason Andrews, one of the physicians at Eastern Virginia Medical School's Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine, following an in vitro fertilization procedure performed by the pioneering husband-and-wife team of Dr. Howard and Dr. Georgeanna Jones.
Her birth made history as the first successful birth resulting from IVF in the United States, and she was reportedly only the fifteenth IVF baby born anywhere in the world, following the landmark birth of Louise Brown in England in 1978. At the time, IVF was an experimental and controversial technology, with many members of the public and medical establishment skeptical of its safety and ethics.
The intense media attention surrounding her birth—including extensive coverage by major newspapers and television networks—helped introduce the American public to assisted reproductive technology and began the process of normalizing IVF as a legitimate medical treatment for infertility. Her birth is widely regarded as a foundational moment in the history of American reproductive medicine, paving the way for the millions of IVF births that would follow in subsequent decades.