Mrs Lesley Brown, the world's first test-tube mother, gave birth to a baby girl at Oldham General Hospital, Lancashire, last night after a caesarean section delivery.

The historic birth took place shortly before midnight. The baby weighed in at 5lb 12 ozs. Medical staff said later that the condition of both mother and daughter were "excellent".

The birth was slightly premature - it was due on August 4. Last week Mrs Brown (32) was found to be suffering from toxaemia, a mild form of blood poisoning, and there was speculation that her gynaecologist, Mr Patrick Steptoe, would hasten the birth to avoid complications.

The toxaemia followed a month-long crisis for Mr Steptoe when Mrs Brown was found to be suffering from a hormone deficiency which threatened to starve the unborn baby of oxygen.

When Mrs Brown was presented with her long awaited child today it was not the first time she had seen her. Earlier this month she saw the fully formed baby in her womb with the help of an ultrasonic scanner. Doctors have also known the sex of the child, but at her own request Mrs Brown was not told until the birth.

The end of Mrs Brown's confinement is not likely to end the newspaper controversy which has blemished what is otherwise a high point in British medical history.

Since news of the impending birth was first broken by an American newspaper in April journalists from Japan, the US as well as Fleet Street have been wrangling over the "rights" to the big story.

The Daily Mail finally offered a reputed £325,000 and mounted its own guard on Mrs Brown's ward to protect the booty. Then, after a row which reached ministerial level, health authorities agreed that news of Mrs Brown's progress would be released on a normal non-selective basis.

The test-tube baby break-through is the product of the research Mr Steptoe, whose unit is at Oldham, and a Cambridge physiologist, Dr Robert Edwards, have been conducting since the 1960s. Properly known as an "embryo transfer" the technique involves the removal of an egg from the mother, its fertilisation with the father's sperm, its growth in a culture medium and then its re-implantation in the mother's womb.

The operation is highly expensive but Mr Steptoe believes several thousand women a year could soon be benefiting from it. He used the technique with Mrs Brown after she and her husband, 38-year-old lorry driver, Mr Gilbert Brown, had tried unsuccessfully for nine years to have a baby.