The medical team that delivered the first baby in the United States to be born from a transplanted uterus said the milestone procedure gave hope to hundreds of women without a functioning uterus.
The Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas announced the birth last week. The woman who gave birth has asked to remain anonymous, doctors said both mother and son were healthy.
“They both doing fine. The mom has already gone home. The baby is on room air and eating and the mom is anxiously awaiting him to come home,” Dr. Robert Gunby told reporters at a news conference on Monday.
It takes five hours to remove a healthy uterus and another five hours to place it into a woman who otherwise could not become pregnant. When a woman has a transplanted uterus, in vitro fertilization is the only way she can become pregnant because the ovaries are not connected to the transplanted womb.
The first attempted uterus transplant in the United States in February 2016 at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, from a deceased donor failed because of a yeast infection.
The medical team at Baylor was optimistic about future uterine procedures.
“The only real success aside of course from the live birth is going to see how many institutions were embarking this adventure. We know for sure that there are at least three or four major institutions in United States who are starting or are willing to start a uterus transplant program. My personal opinion is that this is going to affect many women in the United States. They will see this becoming part of one of the possible solutions to absolute uterine infertility,” said transplant surgeon Dr. Giulano Testa.
While the birth of a healthy baby by a woman with a transplanted uterus was a medical first in the United States, it follows several childbirths by women with transplanted uteruses at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg in Sweden.
