First Woman To Give Birth Through Womb Donor

A mother from Sweden has become the first woman to give birth after receiving a womb transplant.

Her baby boy was born last month according to The Lancet, which describes the delivery as a breakthrough for infertile women.

The 36-year-old woman, who has not been identified, was born with healthy ovaries but no uterus - a condition that affects one woman in every 4,500.

Mats Brannstrom

Prof Matts Braennstroem led the operation

But thanks to the donation of a live womb by a 61-year-old "close family friend", doctors were able to harvest eggs from the recipient's ovaries for fertilisation and cryogenic freezing.

A year after the pioneering transplant, doctors introduced a single early stage embryo in to the womb; a pregnancy test three weeks later was positive.

The baby was delivered by caesarian section at 31 weeks after the woman developed preeclampsia.

But despite the boy's premature birth, he weighed a healthy 3.9 lbs (1.77 kg) and doctors say mother and baby are both fine at home.

Liza Johannesson, gynaecology surgeon at the University of Gothenburg, said: "I think it can have major impact, huge impact, because it actually gives hope. And it gives hope to those women and men also, of course that thought they would never have a child."

Doctors in Britain are among those planning similar operations from next year, potentially helping thousands of British women in the future.

However, Professor Mats Brannstrom, team leader of the Uterus Transplantation Team at the University of Gothenburg, who led the research and delivered the baby, said this won't be a routine surgery "until many years yet".

"It depends on the results of coming research studies on the same subject," he said.