05:49 PM PDT on Friday, May 20, 2005

By JEAN ENERSEN / KING 5 News

In-vitro fertilization has come a long way from the days of multiple births, and one Seattle clinic is claiming one of the best success rates in the country.

KING

IVF technology is constantly improving.

“Years ago, it was actually necessary to transfer three or four embryos just to have maybe a 20 percent chance of a live birth,” said Dr. Nancy Klein of Seattle Reproductive Medicine.

In the past, multiple births represented health complications for mothers and babies alike. But not anymore, because doctors are now able to keep embryos alive much longer in the lab. So what they do us watch and wait.

"By waiting until day five, we basically eliminate from the selection those embryos that don't have the potential to implant, helping with the problem of freezing left over embryos,” said Klein.

Baby Greta is one of the success stories although her parents weren't sure it would ever happen

"You get so used to the emotional roller coaster,” said new mother Lisa Goss. “Maybe it will happen this month, maybe we'll be parents. When that happens 30, 40 times, you definitely feel that maybe it will never happen at at all.

Today, the odds are better than ever. Seattle Reproductive Medicine claims a 70- to 75-percent pregnancy rate.

“The success rates that we're achieving now were not actually though to be biologically possible when I began my training,” Klein said.

Lisa and Erick Goss still can't believe their good fortune.

"When she's two to three weeks old, you're still touching the baby to see if she's real,” said Erick Goss. “The whole pregancy you're worried something is going to go wrong.”

But it didn't. And foor most couples this is now how the story ends -- with one baby at a time.

Patients also have the option of taking out an insurance policy. If they're not successful after several rounds of IVF, part of their money will refunded so they can still pursue other options, such as adoption.