London, April 8 (IANS) For the first time in Britain, a woman has given birth following a womb transplant, Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital in London confirmed on Tuesday.
New mother Grace Davidson, who is 36 and lives in the south of England, was born without a functioning womb. This changed in early 2023 when she became the first woman to receive a womb transplant in Britain, after her sister Amy donated her own womb as part of the Womb Transplant UK living donor programme.
As reported in 2023 by BJOG, the International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the original donor operation and subsequent transplant took place at the Oxford Transplant Centre, part of OUH’s Churchill Hospital.
Grace then subsequently had In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) treatment at the HCA UK’s Lister Fertility Clinic in London. She has since been closely monitored at the Churchill Hospital and Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital, which is run by Imperial College Healthcare and is where her baby was born.
Grace and baby girl are both doing very well following a caesarean section birth in February 2025, said the hospital in a statement.
New mother Grace and father Angus have named their baby Amy Isabel after her sister Amy, who donated her womb, and Miss Isabel Quiroga, who co-led the transplant operation.
“The birth of the first UK baby following a womb transplant is a remarkable milestone in reproductive medicine,” said Dr Ippokratis Sarris, consultant in Reproductive Medicine, Director of King’s Fertility and Executive Committee Member of the British Fertility Society.
“While this complex procedure will only be suitable for a small number of women, it marks an extraordinary advance in science and care.”
One in 5,000 women in Britain are born without a viable womb and are unable to conceive and carry their own child. Many other women lose their wombs as a result of cancer or other medical conditions.
There have been over 100 womb transplants worldwide and more than 50 healthy babies born so far, Xinhua news agency reported. The first successful womb transplant operations were carried out in 2013 at Gothenburg in Sweden.
The Womb Transplant UK living donor programme is funded by the registered charity Womb Transplant UK, which raises and manages funds from public donations in order to pay the National Health Service for the cost of the transplant operations along with its other research costs.
The charity funds two programmes: a live donor program for five transplants and a Health Research Authority approved deceased donor research programme, which will include 10 transplant operations.
Professor Richard Smith co-leads the UK living donor programme. He is founder and chair of the charity Womb Transplant UK. He said in a statement: “This is the culmination of over 25 years of research, with huge contributions from so many talented people, hospitals and organisations working with our charity Womb Transplant UK.”
“Our charity-funded programme is still at an early stage,” he said. “But we hope we will be able to help more women in the near future who are currently unable to conceive or carry their own baby.”
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