Medical History: First Womb-Transplant Baby

Swedish team reports milestone
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 3, 2014 3:24 PM CDT
Medical History: First Womb-Transplant Baby
In this file photo, a Swedish research team prepares to transplant wombs at Sahlgrenska Hospital in Goteborg, Sweden.   (AP Photo/University of Goteborg, Johan Wingborg, File)

A woman in Sweden gave birth to a healthy baby boy last month, an otherwise ordinary event that is making international headlines for good reason: The woman who gave birth was herself born without a womb. Doctors fixed that with a womb transplant earlier this year, leading to last month's medical milestone, reports AP. The unidentified 36-year-old becomes the first woman to give birth with a transplanted womb. The baby is doing "fantastic," says lead researcher Mats Brannstrom of the University of Gothenburg and Stockholm. His team will soon provide more details in the medical journal Lancet. It's "still sinking in that we have actually done it.".

The woman received her uterus from her own mother, reports the Telegraph, which spells out another related milestone: The baby is "the first born to a woman using the same womb from which she emerged herself." The Swedish team actually transplanted wombs into nine women, though two of the procedures eventually failed. But the other seven women are doing fine, and two of them are currently pregnant. "It was a pretty tough journey over the years, but we now have the most amazing baby," says the proud new father in Sweden. (More womb transplant stories.)

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