A woman has become the first to give birth with a transplanted uterus outside of a clinical trial, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) announced on Monday.
UAB said the baby’s birth happened via planned cesarean section in late May, ABC News reported. Both the mom — who preferred to be identified by only her first name, Mallory — and the baby boy are healthy.
More than twenty years ago, Mallory was diagnosed with Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome, which the National Institutes of Health defines as a rare condition characterized by the absence of a uterus or an underdeveloped uterus and vagina.
“I had come to terms with knowing that, OK, I won’t be able to carry my own children, but for me, it always felt like something that was lacking,” Mallory said in a statement.
When Mallory was accepted to UAB Medicine’s uterus transplant program, she, her husband Nick, and their daughter — born with the help of Mallory’s sister, a gestational surrogate — moved to Birmingham for more than a year. Mallory received a donated uterus from a deceased donor through a nonprofit called Legacy of Hope, according to the report.
After the transplant, Mallory underwent an in vitro fertilization process before a “high-risk pregnancy and delivery,” the report states. The whole process lasted approximately 18 months, according to the university.
“Mallory’s son is the first baby born from UAB’s uterus transplant program — only one of four in the U.S. — and the university’s Comprehensive Transplant Institute,” the report states.
Dr. Anupam Agarwal, UAB’s senior vice president for medicine, said in a statement that he and everyone involved are “thrilled” for the family.
“We are thrilled for Mallory and her husband, Nick, and humbled that they entrusted our UAB Medicine care team to guide them through this long, difficult — and exciting — journey of transplantation, pregnancy, and childbirth,” Agarwal said.
“Our goal and dream for this program is to make this routine for women who want to experience pregnancy and childbirth but can’t for a variety of health reasons. We have the expertise and the multidisciplinary teams in place here to help make this reality,” Agarwal added. “Their work with Mallory and our other transplant recipients and pregnancies to date has just been phenomenal.”
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Twitter @thekat_hamilton.