Rise of the baby ‘cellfie’ photos... taken moments after conception!

MANY an excited parent-to-be has rushed to show friends and family a grainy ultrasound image of their unborn child at a few weeks old.

But the latest trend in baby pictures rolls back the clock as far as it is possible to go – the day of conception.

So- called ‘cellfies’ show the incredible moments after an egg divides following fertilisation. Time-lapse imaging techniques have been developed by IVF clinics, using the pictures to decide on the healthiest embryo to be selected for transplantation.

Once chosen, prospective mothers and fathers can even log on to live footage of their developing embryos while they are still in the lab.

Professor Charles Kingsland, of the Hewitt Fertility Centre in 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.’

Jaycie Jones, now two, is one of the first babies to have the new time-lapse imaging with Care Fertility in Nottingham.

Her parents Paula Chapman, 38, and Paul Jones, 35, now have a complete record of her development, from just a few cells in a dish right up to her birth.

Wanda Georgiades, of Care Fertility clinics, said: ‘We send a link to the patients with their time-lapse film direct from the incubator which begins from fertilisation of eggs and sperm. One couple played it on their TV for their friends to watch.’

Private clinics have already gone further than the NHS in creating 3D ultrasound scans of unborn children for new mothers and fathers to view on their smartphones.

In Brazil, researchers have even used new technology to allow parents see and hear their unborn baby using virtual reality headsets. The technology also gives doctors a clearer view of the foetus, allowing them to spot birth defects.