LESS than one year after opening its doors, a Knutsford fertility clinic has welcomed its first baby to the world.

The Hewitt Fertility Clinic, situated at the Pavilions, off Mobberley Road, announced the birth of the first baby born through assisted conception at the clinic – Joshua James.

The 7lbs 6oz healthy baby boy was born on March 14 to elated parents Joanne and Daniel Howard.

Joanne said: “We’re absolutely over the moon with Joshua and, of course the service we received from Dr Rafet Gazvani and The Hewitt Fertility Centre.”

The Cumbrian couple had been trying for a baby for five years and, despite having four successful cycles of IVF, each one of them ended in miscarriage.

To find out why this was happening, Joanne and Daniel visited Dr Rafet Gazvani at the clinic, who found that cells were attacking the baby at six weeks.

Following a series of treatments to neutralise the cells, the couple got pregnant with Joshua.

“We’ll definitely be going back to Mr Gazvani and the clinic to give Joshua a little baby brother or sister.”

The Hewitt Fertility Centre in Knutsford opened in April 2013 and its first successful pregnancy and baby is a key milestone in the clinic’s timeline.

The sister clinic of The Hewitt Fertility Centre at Liverpool Women’s Hospital was set up to meet the needs of patients in the Chester and South Manchester areas.

The centre aims to provide the best rates in assisted conception through its catalogue of ground-breaking technologies, including EEVA, EmbryoScope and EmbryoGlue, and is the first in Europe to introduce 100pc time-lapse photography as part of standard care.

Dr Gazvani said: “It is wonderful to be able to help couples achieve their dreams, especially when they might think there is little that can be done.

“Technology is continuously progressing, so are the success rates. Through our state of the art facilities and cutting edge research we try to stay at the forefront and lead the way.”