On 12 November 1987, Magda, the first child in Poland conceived through in vitro fertilisation (IVF), was born in Białystok. This Thursday marks 39 years since that birth, which was delivered by the team of Prof. Marian Szamatowicz.
Birth in Białystok
According to the Medical University of Białystok, Magda was born on Thursday at around 8:30 a.m. by caesarean section. The team of doctors from the Gynecology Clinic of the Medical Academy (today the Medical University of Białystok, UMB) was headed by Prof. Marian Szamatowicz. Team members included, among others, Sławomir Wołczyński, Waldemar Kuczyński, Jerzy Radwan, Euzebiusz Sola and Marek Kulikowski.
Work on the method in Białystok began in 1984. A year later, Prof. Szamatowicz, then director of the Institute of Obstetrics and Women’s Diseases, travelled to a symposium in Gothenburg, where he saw extracorporeal fertilisation up close. After returning, he gathered the team and decided that the doctors would take up this method. Worldwide, the first IVF child had been born in 1978, nine years earlier.
Prof. Szamatowicz recalled that after the caesarean section, he was happiest when the baby turned out to be healthy, and he called her cry “the most beautiful music”. Magda learned that she had been conceived through IVF at the age of 25, during a conference in Białystok marking 25 years of the method. She is today the mother of three children conceived naturally. She lives in Olsztyn.
Honouring the Method’s Creator
The councillors of Białystok named Prof. Szamatowicz an Honorary Citizen of the city. The justification of the resolution stressed that he and his team played a key role not only in the medical revolution but also in changing the way society talks about IVF and infertility. According to the professor’s estimates, since 1987 at least 100,000 children could have been born in Poland thanks to the method. This is his estimate, not official data.
Government Programme: Over 10,000 Children
Today, IVF in Poland is funded from the state budget. The Ministry of Health’s programme for 2024–2028 launched on 1 June 2024 and will run until 31 December 2028. The ministry allocates at least PLN 500 million a year to it, and the 2026 budget plans PLN 100 million more. Couples may use up to six procedures, including up to four cycles using their own reproductive cells. The programme also covers fertility protection for people treated for cancer.
The first children from the programme began to be born in March 2025. The ministry reports that over 10,000 children have been born thanks to it so far. The most were born in the voivodeships of Mazovia (1988), Lesser Poland (1218), Pomerania (1213) and Greater Poland (1210). In a later statement, the ministry said that 15,000 children were born within two years of the programme’s launch.
The earlier government programme, run from 2013 to 2016, covered nearly 18,000 couples. According to the ministry, 22,365 children were born thanks to it.
