In Sweden, a woman who received a new uterus via transplant last year had just given birth to a baby, in a remarkable case that is considered a medical first. The 36-year-old woman gave birth to a premature but healthy baby boy last month and doctors say that both mother and child are well and in good condition. Their identities, including that of the father, remain undisclosed.
Dr. Mats Brannstrom is the obstetrician gynecologist from the University of Gothenburg and Stockholm IVF who delivered the baby and also lead researcher of this case study. He said in an earlier statement that, "The baby is fantastic. But it is even better to see the joy in the parents and how happy he made them." He added that the thought of having actually done the procedures and how successful it all turned out is "still thinking in."
Doctors and researchers are hoping that this extraordinary achievement could pave the way for an experimental alternative that could help thousands of women who are unable to and their children because of several reasons including being born without it, or losing their wombs to cancer. Before this breakthrough case, many experts have already questioned the viability of nourishing a fetus inside a transplanted womb.
In a telephone interview, the happy father said that, "It was a pretty tough journey over the years, but we now have the most amazing baby. He is very, very cute, and he doesn't even scream, he just murmurs." Both parents are competitive athletes who were already very optimistic about the procedure from the beginning, despite being advised against its experimental nature.
During the study, Dr. Brannstrom and his team transplanted wombs into nine women, with two having to be removed due to complications. Eventually, the research team began transferring embryos into the seven subjects. Aside from this case, there were two other pregnancies that lasted for at least 25 weeks. The Swedish woman was born without a uterus but had healthy ovaries, and received a uterus from a 61-year old family friend who was already menopausal and had two children.