'Miracle' baby born from first ever womb transplant
Grace Bell has MRKH syndrome, which she was told at 16 would prevent her from ever carrying her own children
Last December, a baby boy named Hugo achieved a world-first, becoming the first infant to be born in the UK from a womb that had previously been transplanted from a deceased donor.
His mother, Grace Bell, had been told as a teenager that she'd never be able to carry her own child. At 16, the London local was diagnosed with a condition called MRKH syndrome.
Affecting one in every 5,000 women in the UK, the rare condition is defined by an absence or severe underdevelopment of the uterus and upper vagina.
The ovaries and external genitalia of the vast majority of patients, meanwhile, remain completely intact.
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This meant that when Bell, who is now in her 30s, and her partner, Steve Powell, decided to start a family, she was able to use her own ovaries. What the couple did require, however, was a womb in which to hold their future baby.
Thankfully, two medical teams across both Oxford and London offered to support them in their endeavour, pointing out that either surrogacy or a full-fledged womb transplant would be their only options. Eventually, they decided on the latter.
Not long after making their decision, Bell and Powell received a call from the hospital, informing them that a uterus had been donated - news that left the mum-to-be 'completely in shock'.
The high-stakes transplant procedure was carried out at The Churchill Hospital in Oxford in June 2024 and lasted 10 hours.
The months that followed saw Bell and Powell undergo IVF treatment at The Lister Fertility Clinic in London, after which an embryo transplant took place.
Nine months later, Bell gave birth to a son, Hugo, at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in west London just before Christmas.
The tot weighed almost 7lbs, with his mother describing labour as 'a ground-breaking moment'.
Hugo is living happily and healthily as a 10-week-old baby, whom his parents recently described to the BBC as 'simply a miracle'.
"I think of my donor and her family every day and pray they find some peace in knowing their daughter gave me the biggest gift: the gift of life," Bell told the British broadcaster. "A part of her will live on forever."
Of the ability to bring her own child into the world, the first-time mum went on to recall: "I remember waking up in the morning and seeing his little face, with his little dummy in, and it felt like I needed to wake up from a dream.
"It was just incredible."
The transplanting of a deceased donor's womb into Bell's marked just one of the 10 that are currently underway in the UK as part of a research trial. Three other procedures have proven successful so far, whilst baby Hugo is the first to be born.
If Bell and Powell decide to try for any further children in the future, they can use the same transplanted womb once again.
Once their family is complete, however, medics will surgically remove the transplanted womb to prevent Bell from being on the same strong medication - aimed at stopping her body's immune system from attacking the donated organ - for the rest of her life.
Topics: Parenting, Pregnancy, UK News, Health, Women's Health, News
Rhianna Benson