It took me four years and four IVF cycles to conceive my first child. During that time I made a number of baby sweaters. When my daughter was finally born I discovered that while the little raglan sweater I’d made several copies of looked absolutely adorable, there were some issues with fit and sizing, namely if you make the head opening wide enough for an infant’s head to fit through it’s also way too roomy around the shoulders. On the other hand, I loved the clean lines of the raglan pullover and I didn’t want to break that up. The clear solution was to design my own raglan baby pullover for the next baby.

The assisted hatching pullover like the assisted hatching IVF technique is a way to finesse the technical issues. In IVF, it involves drilling little holes in the protective zona around the egg to allow the embryo to “hatch” out and form a blastocyst more easily without damaging the embryo. The assisted hatching sweater has an opening that follows the line of the raglan increases on the yoke of the sweater to make it easier to get on and off over the baby’s head without disturbing the lines of the sweater. It is my hope that all women who need IVF with assisted hatching will eventually have need of a baby sweater .