Swedish woman the first to give birth after womb transplant

A 36-year-old from Sweden has become the first woman to give birth after receiving a womb transplant.

The baby boy was born prematurely but healthy last month. He and his mother are now at home and doing well. Their identities have not been revealed.

The Swedish woman had healthy ovaries, but she was born without a uterus, a syndrome seen in one girl in 4,500. She received a uterus from a 61-year-old family friend who had gone through menopause after giving birth to two children.

“The baby is fantastic,” said Dr Mats Brannstrom, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Gothenburg and Stockholm IVF who led the research and delivered the baby with the help of his wife, a midwife. “But it is even better to see the joy in the parents and how happy he made them.”

Brannstrom said it was “still sinking in that we have actually done it”.

Gynaecologist Liza Johannesson said the delivery was a breakthrough for women with fertility issues.

"It can have huge impact, because it gives hope to women and men who thought they would never have a child," she said.