A baby girl has become the first baby in the UK to be born to a mother with a womb transplant.
The 36-year-old mother, Grace Davidson, was born with a rare condition in which the uterus is underactive but the ovaries are functional. In 2023, her sister, who already had two children and did not want any more, donated her own uterus to her. At the time, it was the only successful uterus transplant in the UK. Two years later, Grace gave birth to her first child. The baby was born in February and was named after her sister Grace.
The baby weighed a little more than two kilograms when it was born. The mother was very moved because she could not imagine that she would manage to bring a child into the world.
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The couple living in North London hopes to soon have a second baby using a transplanted uterus.
The couple initially wanted to keep their anonymity, but after the baby's safe arrival they spoke to the BBC about the «little miracle».
Grace says she was given the choice of surrogacy or adoption, but she really wanted to carry her own baby.
It was «incredible» to feel the first kick of her baby, she says, adding that the whole pregnancy was «truly special».
The transplant was originally scheduled to take place in late 2019, but it failed and then the Covid pandemic hit. When it finally took place, in February 2023, it took a team of more than 30 doctors and about 17 hours to remove the sister's uterus and transplant it into Grace.
Grace became pregnant on her first attempt at IVF. The couple wants to have a second child as soon as the conditions are right.
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The transplanted uterus will be removed after the birth of a second child. This will allow Grace to stop taking the daily immunosuppressants she currently takes to ensure her body doesn't reject her sister's uterus.
The first baby born with a transplanted uterus was in Sweden in 2014. Since then, about 135 such transplants in more than a dozen countries, and about 65 babies have been born.
Professor Richard Smith, a gynaecological surgeon at Imperial College Healthcare, who led the organ retrieval team (in Grace's case), has been researching womb transplantation for more than two decades.
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He says that his team is excited about the birth of the baby with a transplanted uterus in the United Kingdom and believes it will give hope to thousands of women in the country who have a non-functional or no uterus.
Such operations are extremely important. For the mother, this is not just a medical miracle. It is the realization of a dream, perhaps after years of struggle or despair. The news of this birth shows us how quickly science advances, and how, when combined with care and love, it can change lives. It is touching and hopeful!
Source: www.bbc.com
