A group of British researchers has come up with a technique they believe could significantly improve the success rate for couples undergoing in-vitro fertilisation.
It involves taking thousands of time-lapse photographs of the developing embryo.
The method can be used to select embryos with a low risk of defects, the BBC reports.
Scientists at the CARE fertility group say such informed selection can improve birth rates by 56%.
The research followed the couples at a clinic in Manchester, in northern England last year, when 88 embryos were imaged and implanted.
The embryos were put into an incubator and imaged every 10-20 minutes.
The researchers classified the embryos as low, medium or high risk of chromosome abnormalities based on their development at certain key points.
Eleven babies were born from the low risk group compared to five from the medium risk group and none from those deemed high risk.
