For anyone born before the 1950s their earliest baby pictures are likely to be at a few days old.

Fast forward several decades and parents could take home an image of their child just 12 weeks after conception thanks to the advent of ultrasound and cheap printers.

But groundbreaking fertility technology is allowing the family album to begin at fertilisation with parents increasingly asking for images of their children when they are just a few cells in a petri dish.

In recent years, IVF clinics have developed cutting-edge timelapse photography which was designed to monitor cell development in the first few days, so that doctors can pick the healthiest embryo for implantation in the womb and boost the chances of having a baby.

But the ‘embryoscope’ technique has also allowed parents to witness the mysterious beginnings of their child’s life at the very moment of conception, and in the crucial few days after fertilisation.