RMA Long Island IVF 30th Anniversary Reunion Recap
The Long Island IVF 30th Anniversary Reunion event is one for the books.
Generally, the sheer volume of babies after 30 years in practice necessitates that the annual reunions be limited to the most recent “class” of newborns and toddlers. But to celebrate such a big milestone—30 years! –this year’s event was opened up to ALL of the Long Island IVF babies ever born and their relentless parents who wouldn’t take “no” for an answer.
It’s one thing to know you’ve been in business for 30 years and have helped create about 10,000 babies during that time, but it’s another thing to actually see a sampling of those babies ranging from 8 weeks to 29-years old. We saw the tiniest baby make her first venture out into the world and others that we haven’t seen since they were babies who are now all grown up. Some of our babies (like LIIVF Baby #2) have babies of their own! Some are old enough to be married, in college or grad school, or out in the working world.
It was emotional for the doctors and staff to take it all in. To witness a small segment of the lives they’ve changed and the lives they helped create. The gratitude and joy of the parents of these children of all ages was evident in their wide smiles and tears of pride and joy as they caught us up on the milestones and accomplishments and dreams of the children they once thought they may never have.
But in addition to the sweetness of the parents’ and older patients’ gratitude was the beauty of the emotional responses by the doctors, nurses, and staff.
To look out into a crowded room of happy families and remember the struggles of hopeful prospective parents-- and to now see them transformed into happy parents is overwhelming. And the fact that some of the parents are already grandparents is just mind-blowing. As the doctors’ speeches indicated, it is they who felt privileged to create these families and to continue to do what many in attendance who agree is among the most gratifying work on the planet.
Long Island IVF is proud to have brought Long Island its first IVF baby, it’s first baby from a cryopreserved embryo and its first donor egg baby. Over the past 30 years, there have been so many advances in assisted reproductive technologies-- like ICSI (Intra-cytoplasmic Sperm Injection), Assisted Hatching, PGS/PGD (Pre-implantation Genetic Screening/Diagnosis), and more. Over the years, Long Island IVF has been honored to have been one of few practices nationwide to participate in the early studies of some of these and other now-common treatments.
Believing that all people have the right to be parents, LIIVF is also proud of its long-standing commitment to family-building in the LGBT community and its partnership with The LGBT Network.
Long Island IVF is also the home of the Jade Foundation IVF Grant Program. Exclusively available to Long Island IVF patients, this grant assists qualified patients who don’t have medical insurance for IVF treatment in accessing IVF for family-building. Made possible by the generosity of the Wasserman Family, the Jade Grant is responsible for the birth of 11 babies to date, and has financially helped 23 couples access IVF treatment they could not otherwise afford. The Wasserman family was present at the reunion. Seeing them meet the babies who were born as a result of this grant was very poignant, emotional, and exciting.
It was a wonderful day to see a cross section of 30 years of making babies on Long Island and no one wanted it to end. A day to celebrate the positive resolution of the infertility journeys of so many patients and to watch these appreciative families going back to their happy lives at the end of the day. And to see the doctors and staff returning to the office to continue their important work of building more families on Long Island.
Here’s to the next 30 years…