In a historic first, a baby was born to a woman after she received a womb transplant from a post-menopausal donor, the successful outcome of a fertility project at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.
The goal of the Gothenburg project started in 1999 is to enable women who were born without a womb or who have lost their wombs in cancer surgery to give birth to their own children. Seven more Swedish women having received uterus transplants from living donors, hope to become pregnant soon.
The first pregnancy was confirmed in the spring for a woman in her mid-30s, a little over a year after her transplantation. Last month, the woman successfully delivered a son, making her the first woman in the world to deliver a child from a transplanted uterus, in this case donated by a 61-year-old unrelated woman.
According to Professor Mats Brännström, the perfectly healthy newborn boy is developing normally.
‘The baby screamed right away and has not required any other care than normal clinical observation at the neonatal unit. The mother and child are both doing well and have returned home. The new parents are of course very happy and thankful,’ says Brännström, who is leading the research project.
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