The incredible story of the baby who was conceived just a year after her mother was born.

Tina Gibson, 26, from Tennessee in the US has reportedly given birth to the oldest frozen embryo ever to come to term.

When Tina and her husband Benjamin couldn’t fall pregnant naturally, they decided to adopt a frozen embryo in March this year.

On November 25, baby Emma was born. She measured 20 inches long and weighed just under three kilograms, according to a statement from the National Embryo Donation Center in Knoxville.

Amazingly, the embryo that became Emma was conceived in 1992 – only a year after Tina herself was born in 1991.

The embryo was 24 years old at the time it was thawed and transferred in March.

Emma’s father Benjamin described his newborn as a “sweet miracle”.

“I think she looks pretty perfect to have been frozen all those years ago.”

Lab director Carol Sommerfelt said the birth of Emma was “deeply moving and highly rewarding”.

“I will always remember what the Gibsons said when presented with the picture of their embryos at the time of transfer,” Sommerfelt is quoted in the press release. “They said: ‘These embryos could have been my best friends’, as Tina herself was only 25 at the time of transfer.”

Tina and Benjamin's story was made possible through embryo donation - something rarely talked about in the discussion of IVF in Australia.

Why? Because it's tricky. Embryos are not just egg or sperm, they are the biological children of the couple that artificially conceived them and they are the siblings of any children that couple might have.

Parents with embryos leftover from IVF cycles have three choices, Associate Editor Clara Pirani wrote for The Australian: "let them ­'succumb'; donate them to research; or donate them to someone else".

Usually a decisive person, Pirani said "the responsi­bility of this choice has me stuck on pause".

Last month we heard the story of Natalie Parker, a woman who chose to donate her embryos thinking she would know her genetic children as they grew up.

Instead, the recipient allegedly lied to Parker and the IVF clinic, saying she never carried the embryo to term, only for Parker to discover the baby-that-was-her-embryo in a Facebook photograph months later.

"I feel like I've been used," Parker told Nine's 60 Minutes in November this year.

Still, an excess of embryos represent a problem in Australia that no one wants to address.

According to research out of the University of Technology in Sydney, as written up by Jenni Millbank for The Conversation, there are more than 120,000 leftover embryos - also referred to as 'snowflakes' - currently in Australia.

It's a heartbreaking gap, considering statistics from the Embryo Donation Network, reported by News Corp, that show: for every 20 couples hoping for embryos in Australia, only one will receive them.

As well as this, in the last 10 years, the state of Victoria has seen more that 20,000 embryos discarded simply because the legal storage limits had been reached.

Now, with Tina and Benjamin Gibson's story - that embryos which have been frozen for 24 years can be taken to full, healthy term - this waste seems even more excessive.

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Perhaps, clearer transparency around embryo donation might make the decision more attractive to potential donors such as Pirani.

Current laws in Australia declare embryo donation cannot be commercial; couples considering donation must undergo counselling; and anonymous donation is prohibited because the child has a right to know.

There is no legislation, however, around the biological parents' right to know. According to a 2011 study published in the International Journal of Fertility & Sterility, embryo recipients are 'encouraged' to disclose to their children that they were donor-conceived, but there is no system to ensure this happens.

Giving away embryos will never be easy. There will be good news stories, like that of Tina and Benjamin, and bad news stories, like Natalie Parker's. But some further clarity and perhaps empathy, too, is likely needed - particularly when there are 120,000 of them sitting in laboratory shelves.