The Bridge Clinic, pioneer fertility centre in the country, has celebrated the live births of more than 2,550 babies the hospital has recorded in the last 20 years. This is equivalent of having one baby every three days or an average of one baby born every 41 hours, since 1999 when the IVF centre was established by Dr. Richardson Ajayi, a renowned consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist.
To this end, the hospital has rolled out the drums to celebrate its 20th anniversary and feats recorded. With IVF clinics in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja, the fertility hospital is also sharing the joy with many new families it has helped. The Bridge Clinic, which has been in the forefront of fertility medicine since its inception, has also achieved several successful milestones for new fertility techniques locally. Among these are: being the centre that recorded the first conception and birth by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in Nigeria; first conception and birth from surgically collected sperm in Nigeria; and first conception and birth through IVF surrogacy in Nigeria.
Speaking to journalists at an event to celebrate the anniversary, Dr. Babatunde Ogunniran, consultant gynaecologist, Bridge Clinic, said the hospital is very proud of the milestone it has recorded, considering the risk factors surrounding the IVF practice and the challenges presented by couples. He also stressed that the success rate of IVF has improved globally over time. At the rate of 35 per cent, it means three out of 10 women will actually get pregnant through IVF. Dr. Ogunniran said with recent innovations and technology, the story of infertility has changed in Nigeria, as the fertility clinic records an improved success rate of about 52 per cent live births.
According to Ogunniran, the clinic, which renders IVF services in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, has helped many families become parents of twins, quadruplets and single, leveraging on the expertise of its team of consultant gynaecologists, embryologists, medical officers and nurses. Though there are no strict regulations as regards IVF in the country, the gynaecologist maintained that the clinic adheres to best ethical practices in its treatment guidelines for couples to match up with international standards.
He also debunked insinuations that children born through IVF suffer from one form of cardiovascular disease or the other, stating that all the babies are absolutely normal as those born through natural means, except those from very poor and low semen parameters, which could result in genetic abnormalities. Ogunniran advised couples to ensure improved lifestyle modification, which affects reproductive outcomes, noting that many men have been discovered to suffer from low sperm count and poor motility during analysis of samples or random parameters of semen. “A lot of dietary changes are happening throughout the world. We are advised to stop taking alcohol and smoking. We are advised to live well and exercise well, which is very important. We have had situations where men come in for semens analysis and we don’t find sperm at all, which is also as a result of poorly treated sexual transmitted infection due to poor sexual habit, which leads to male infertility,” he said.
As part of its determination to provide a more expanded range of healthcare services, the Bridge Clinic is also building general practice hospitals in Ikeja and Lagos Island. This, the hospital said, will make fertility-related care more readily available for people, while expanding into other disciplines such as peadiatrics, general medicine and nutrition within a modern and comfortable environment. Aware that access to fertility healthcare is sometimes out of reach for ordinary people, the Bridge Clinic has partnered with the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) by providing fertility care to the indigent at the Institute of Fertility Medicine.
Also speaking, Chinelo Diko-Okonkwo, marketing executive, Bridge Clinic, said the new state-of-the-art family medicine hospitals being built are geared towards transforming healthcare in Nigeria. As part of the fertility clinic’s anniversary, she said the hospital will support and renovate orphanages to show love to children who are not fortunate to have parents to take care of their daily requirements. “Every day, we have clients who visit Bridge Clinic requesting help to conceive a child, and we celebrate each time we get the news that a baby has been born. We want to help children who are not as privileged as part of how we express our gratitude to our clients for the joy and success that they have brought to all of us at the Bridge Clinic over the past 20 years,” Diko-Okonkwo said.
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