Success rates climb as `test-tube' technology improves.(assisted reproductive technology)

Byline: Warren King

SEATTLE _ The sunset from the Arboretum was especially beautiful that evening last May. Heidi Wachter and Brent Lackey had chosen the peaceful setting to learn the news they had waited 2 { years to hear.

You're pregnant, the voicemail from the fertility clinic told them. Their long, sometimes heartbreaking journey through infertility was nearing an end. In their early 40s, the couple finally would have a child if all went well.

"It was like we'd been in a marathon with hurdles," said Lackey.

On Jan. 10, the couple crossed the finish line with a healthy 7-pound, 11-ounce boy they named Griffin.

Wachter is one of more than 48,000 U.S. women annually in recent years who have delivered babies with the help of a laboratory. Called "assisted reproductive technology" (ART), such aid involves techniques in which both egg and sperm are manipulated in the lab.

Success rates have steadily climbed since Louise Brown, the world's first "test-tube baby" was born July 25, 1978 in England. Helping Mother Nature for couples who have tried for years to have a child has become a welcome alternative as the technology has steadily improved.

"It's been kind of a sea change. Pregnancies used to be few and far between. Now it's the expected outcome," said Dr. Michael Soules, a nationally known expert and founder of Seattle Reproductive Medicine, the area's largest…