Megan Bergman has an ordinary life -- a home in Omaha, a job at an ad agency, a plan to have kids someday. But there was nothing ordinary about her birth nearly 27 years ago.
Megan Bergman will celebrate her golden birthday next week: She'll turn 27 on the 27th.
She's been waiting to be "golden" since she was 8 and a friend turned 9 on the 9th.
But, really, all of her birthdays have been special.
"I have always celebrated my birthday with my parents, with my friends, with both sets of grandparents," Bergman said. "It was kind of a big deal."
In 1983, her birth itself made news.
Yes, she was a very cute baby. And yes, she was a very cute toddler when she made the paper again just after her first birthday.
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But that's not what all the fuss was about. The daughter of Gary and Shari Bergman was Nebraska's first test-tube baby.
The Bergmans live on a farm near Davey, but they had to go all the way to Houston to conceive their daughter.
In vitro fertilization was new back then, and they were the first Nebraskans accepted into the University of Texas Health Science Center's program.
Shari Bergman's fallopian tubes were damaged, and she went to doctor after doctor looking for answers.
Six years into the emotional journey, they went to Houston, and luck was on their side.
Many couples go through the process -- the father's sperm and the mother's egg are placed together in a laboratory and the fertilized egg is transferred later from a petri dish to the mother's uterus -- several times before it results in a pregnancy.
Shari got pregnant after the first try and gave birth to a perfect, healthy baby girl nine months later in Lincoln.
"I would never say I was spoiled with things," Megan Bergman said. "I was spoiled with attention."
Today, the Bergmans could have made the short trip to Omaha, where both Nebraska Methodist Hospital and Heartland Center for Reproductive Medicine do more than 100 in vitro cycles each year.
They returned to Texas and tried for a second child in 1984 but were unsuccessful.
"It wasn't as hard emotionally," Shari Bergman said. "We already had struck gold."
Then and now, they and their only child are willing to tell their story because they want other people to know help is out there.
"It's worked for millions of couples now," Megan Bergman said. "It may be your last chance."
An art director for an Omaha ad agency and a new homeowner, she wants to have kids of her own someday.
Maybe she will give her first-born the petri dish in which she was conceived (it's in a safe deposit box).
And while being Nebraska's first test-tube baby isn't on her professional resume, she's not shy about tossing it out there.
"In college, I had a friend who would introduce me: ‘This is Megan. She was the first test-tube baby in Nebraska.'
"Now, it's just like a fun fact I hang onto. I'll throw it out if things get boring."
Reach Catharine Huddle at 402-473-7222 or chuddle@journalstar.com.
