The start of life as seen on smartphones

Irish couples attending a Spanish fertility clinic can now watch the first signs of life in their growing embryos on their smartphones or home computer.

More and more Irish mothers are following the trend of older mothers like Bond girl Halle Berry and Nicole Kidman in trying for a baby in their 40s and many are now using egg donation or embryo donation when traditional IVF doesn’t work.

The Instituto Marques in Barcelona, which has treated more than 1,000 Irish patients, has a hi-tech incubator called the Embryoscope, which allows couples to watch the embryos in the first days and weeks live on the internet before they are transferred to the womb.