What Are Snowflake Babies

Question

Sperm donation has been around for decades and egg donation since the early 80’s. It wasn’t until 1998 that the first baby was born, produced from in vitro fertilization, to non-biological parents because she was “adopted” as a frozen embryo. In 2005, the term “Snowflake” was first used by Nightlight Christian Adoptions; the first agency to connect adopting families with donating families.

Almost from the very beginning of the in vitro fertilization (IVF) process my husband I planned on only having one child. We got married late in life and then delayed any kind of medical intervention in our attempt to get pregnant. After 5 years of trying, we skipped most of the less invasive forms medical intervention and when straight to IVF.

Before we took our first consultation meeting with the IVF doctor we knew that more than likely there would be multiple embryos and that we need to be responsible for; those potential “sparks of life”. From the beginning, my first choice, what I felt most strongly about, would be to give them to a couple who wanted a family and needed the generosity of someone to donate their embryos. My second choice would be to donate the embryos for stem cell research (to benefit others struggling with health issues). What I could not do was simply throw them away. Every part of me was 100% against that option.

We got incredibly lucky and got pregnant the first time with just one embryo and because we had our “one and done” child (mainly due to age, but other facts played a part in our decision), we decided not to wait on determining what we should do with the embryos – the 6 “snowflake babies” we had in storage were going to go to another couple.

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Answer

We had IVF and have a 7 month old boy from our first cycle. We've always said 2 children and that's it (although I am unsure if I would like more my husband is adamant). We have 8 embryos in storage but I really don't know how I feel about a whole embryo donation. Egg or sperm donation yes, but those embryos are literally half me half my husband. It's a tough one I think and a personal choice. Imagine walking down the road and seeing a child you recognise that looks similar to yours, could it be their brother or sister? I'm not sure about snowflake babies. I get sad thinking I'll have to "throw away" 6 or 7 potential children but I know they are only embryos. So hard.

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Link not working for me.

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My sweet baby girl is 7 months old and she is a precious snowflake baby.  It is a very unique and wondeful situation.  We have contact with the donor family through our agency, Embryo Adoption Serviced of Cedar Park in the state of Washington. We had become foster parents to try to foster to adopt and that BROKE our hearts. It can work for some but it didn't for us.

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This is what I don't like about this app, links don't work most of the time, gives you information that was useful way before at least 2 months, it doesn't give you many details or something different from what you could find with a simple search on your favorite browser. And they expect one to pay for a premium wth

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I didn’t know this existed! I know a lot of people struggle with what to do with the embryos they aren’t going to use and this is such a wonderful option to have available! There are really amazing potential parents out there for whom IVF isn’t an option because one of the parents doesn’t have viable gametes (sperm or egg) or they don’t have the $30,000 to burn to go through the process of retrieval and fertilization even with donated sperm. 
Something everyone should consider is that this is a bit different than adopting an infant because the way that your DNA is expressed, which chromosomes are activated or not, is partially influenced by the environment in which the embryo develops. That means the hormones of the mother who is carrying the embryo, both the ones that she emits normally biologically as well as those brought on by her environment, will have some impact on how the baby develops. So in some ways, an IVF adopted baby will be more the adopting parent’s baby (in the way we think about a baby being “ours” bc of our genetic influence on them) than an adopted infant. For the donating parents, this means the baby will be less “yours” because the baby will likely develop somewhat differently than it would have in your own belly. That might make it a bit easier for those who feel it would be uncomfortable for them to wonder if other children on the street were “theirs.”

Answer

Two of my three siblings and I are IVF babies. My parents had some embryos left over and put them up for adoption. Their only option was a closed adoption in which my parents would have no way of knowing if any were successful or not unless the parents reached out themselves. When my twin brother and I were in high school, a family reached out that they had used my parents embryos and had a child. She’s the same age as my little sister and she looks just like my twin brother! We were unsure and frankly quite surprised at first when we found out, but it’s so cool to know that there is someone out there who shares your genetics in the next state over. It’s hard to describe but personally I think it’s really cool!

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My worry is that, if it's anonymous, the siblings might meet unknowingly and it could get complicated. I'd donate them to science, they might save lives.

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The website was sold therefore the link does not work. Dead end story. ☹️

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