FLICKR, HEY PAUL STUDIOSDoctors at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden witnessed a medical first last month: the birth of a baby from a woman who was born without a womb. Last year, the woman received a transplanted uterus from a 61-year-old family friend; a year later, an embryo, created from IVT using one of her own eggs, was transferred into the organ. The child was born at 3.9 pounds via Cesarean section last month; both mom and baby are doing well.
“[The baby] screamed almost immediately, and that is a good sign that the baby’s doing fine, and of course that was fantastic happiness among me and the whole team,” Mats Brännström, the University of Gothenburg obstetrician who delivered the baby, said in a video interview. “But in the same time it was a little unreal sensational, because we really couldn’t believe that we had reached this moment.”
Not only was the pregnancy successful, it was a relatively seamless operation, with both fetal growth and uterine and umbilical cord blood flow appearing normal for the first 31 weeks. “We found only one episode of mild rejection during the pregnancy that was successfully treated with corticosteroids, and the woman was working full time until the day before ...
