If you thought the ultrasound image was an early glimpse of your growing baby, sit tight. The latest trend in baby photography goes all the way back to the point of conception.
Yep: IVF clinics are now offering mums and dads-to-be a chance to get a head start on that baby album, offering photos and even videos of the moment their life began.
In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process by which an egg is fertilised by sperm outside the body: in vitro ("in glass").
The ‘embryoscope’ technique, a type of time lapse photography which is generally used by IVF doctors to monitor cell development in the early days after fertilisation,
Now doctors can go back and collect these images, dubbed 'cellfies' for parents who are eager to document every stage of their child's life... from petri dish to pre-school.
Professor Charles Kingsland, of the Hewitt Fertility Centre at Liverpool, told the Sunday Telegraph:
"Time-lapse technology has allowed us to get all these images from the first few days after conception and put them on a USB stick so that parents have pictures of their children, literally, from day one, when they are still in the laboratory."
Would you have like a 'cellfie' of your child for the baby book? Let us know on Twitter @HerFamilydotie.
