Cancer Survivor Welcomes First Baby After Womb Transplant From Mum

A cancer survivor in Sweden has welcomed her first baby courtesy of her mother’s womb following a successful womb transplant.

The new mother, who lost her own uterus to cancer in her 20s, said it was “unimaginable” that she now had her own child, thanks to her mother’s donated womb.

“It can’t be described how happy we are,” she told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview. “It’s everything that I hoped for and a little bit more,” said the woman, who asked that she and her mother not be identified in order to protect the privacy of her 9-month-old son.

Dr. Mats Brannstrom, who is behind the revolutionary process, has ushered in four babies — all boys — with transplanted wombs; a fifth is on the way. He said there was something very special about this case: “It’s one uterus bridging three generations of a family.”

The new mother, in her early 30s, recalled that as hospital staffers wheeled in her mother for the transplant, “I was crying and told her I loved her and thank you for doing this.”

The woman’s mother — the baby’s grandmother — said she immediately agreed when her daughter raised the idea.

The proud grandmother, in her mid-50s, acknowledged she has difficulty understanding the magnitude of the birth, but “at the same time, I sometimes think that I am a part of history.”

The new mother underwent in vitro fertilization to make embryos using her eggs and her husband’s sperm. Doctors waited a year after the transplant to ensure everything was OK. After four attempts to transfer embryos into the new womb, she got pregnant. There were no complications, and she delivered via cesarean section, as planned.

“Feeling him against my cheek was the most wonderful feeling ever,” the mother said. In tribute to Brannstrom, she and her husband gave the baby the middle name of Mats.

She said they will one day tell the boy how he was conceived. “My thought is that he will always know how wanted he was,” she said. “Hopefully when he grows up, uterus transplantation [will be] an acknowledged treatment for women like me and he will know that he was part of making that possible.”

The new mother and her husband are contemplating a second child; the transplanted womb was intended for two pregnancies, before being removed so the mother can stop taking rejection medications.

She said she will be forever grateful to her mother.

“The real unique thing is what me and my mom went through,” she said. “It’s a big thing and he and his grandmother will have this bond for the rest of their lives.”

Source: CBCNews