An American woman has given birth to a baby girl 13 years after she was conceived, completing a set of triplets that will always be separated by an extraordinary age difference.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported today that Debbie Beasley, a 45-year-old registered nurse, gave birth to her new daughter Laina five months ago after more than a decade of mishaps and coincidences that show the uncertainties of reproductive medicine.

Laina, whose name means "gift of God", was a frozen, fertilised embryo for 13 years, suspended in liquid nitrogen at 235C (371F) below zero.

She was one of a clutch of embryos that Mrs Beasley and her husband set aside after successfully undergoing in vitro fertilisation in 1991 and giving birth to twins, who are now beginning high school.

As many couples do, the Beasleys froze a set of fertilised embryos at the time of their treatment in case the procedure failed or they wished to have more children in the future. Being conceived at the same time as the new twins, Carleigh and Jeffrey, the other embryos, strictly speaking, were more multiples.

In Laina's case, which according to The San Francisco Chronicle is the longest documented case of storing an embryo and then thawing it for a successful pregnancy, things took a peculiar turn when the test tube containing the Beasley embryos was sold, without their knowledge, to a university for research.

The fertility clinic they had used, the well known Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of California's Irvine campus, had been illegally trading fertilised embryos and taking embryos from some couples and inserting them in other women, for several years.

After settling out of court along with 100 other couples who were mistreated by their doctor, Dr Ricardo Asch, the Beasleys managed to retrieve eight of the 12 missing embryos. Dr Asch managed to escape America before he was arrested.

In 1996 the couple decided to try for another baby, but their first attempt failed after Mrs Beasley suffered a devastating allergic reaction to one of the drugs used to help IVF treatment take hold.

So it was not until 2004 that the Beasley's tried again, this time with their last undamaged embryo. Despite the small chance of the success - only around 20 per cent of frozen embryos go on to become healthy babies - Mrs Beasley underwent the operation last June and gave birth five weeks premature earlier this year.

"I still look at her and can't believe it," Mrs Beasley who lives in a San Fransico surburb, told The San Francisco Chronicle. "I smell her and kiss her, and I still can't believe she's here."

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