LONDON — In a medical first, a woman in Sweden has given birth after receiving a womb transplant, said the doctor who performed the pioneering procedure on Friday.
The 36-year-old mother received a uterus from a close family friend last year. Her son was born prematurely but healthy last month, and mother and child are at home and well. The identities of the woman and her husband were not disclosed.
“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.”
The feat opens up a new but still experimental alternative for some of the thousands of women each year who are unable to have children because they lost a uterus to cancer or were born without one.
Some experts have questioned whether such an extreme step would even be a realistic option for many women.
