Dozens of babies made possible by Genea Illawarra came together to celebrate the fertility clinic's 21st birthday at the weekend.
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The Wollongong clinic has helped conceive more than 1200 babies during that time and all of them were invited to the birthday bash, held at Albion Park's Ravensthorpe on Saturday.
Just over 100 of the babies - some no longer quite so little - and their families marked the occasion, including 17-year-old Lucie Volf, from Warilla.
"It's really interesting to see all these children here today [Saturday] just had the same start as me and to think, it's a large crowd here, that this program has produced this," Miss Volf said.
"I guess I count myself lucky in that regard, just the feeling that I wouldn't have occurred otherwise; this is the reason why I'm standing here, because this program was available."
Doctor Chris James was the commissioning doctor at Genea, previously known as Sydney IVF, in 1994.
Doctor James said infertility, IVF and other assisted-conception treatments being made available in the Illawarra had changed lives and made others possible.
"It's something that was severely lacking before and people who may not have been here before are certainly here [now]," he said.
"Fertility problems affect probably 12 to 15 per cent of the population and we can offer treatments in Wollongong now that previously people had to go to Sydney for."
As dozens of children played in the Ravensthorpe garden, the smile on Dr James' face told the clinic's success story.
"It's been a very pleasurable experience for me. For the 21 years, it's been hard work at times but extremely rewarding ... seeing all the kids here today [Saturday], playing around, everybody's happy and it's a great day," Dr James said.