This woman born without a uterus just gave birth to a baby boy—here's how

December 10, 2017 12:16 PM

A woman in Texas who received a uterus transplant has just given birth to a healthy baby boy, making her the first woman ever in the U.S. to successfully to become a mom after the procedure.

The baby was born at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas, reports CNN, but there aren't many more details, including when he was actually born, due to the family’s wish for privacy.

In a statement from the hospital, Giuliano Testa, M.D., the principal investigator of the uterine transplant clinical trial at the hospital, said the birth was a “milestone” and "a beautiful moment of love and hope for a mother who had been told she would never be able to carry her own child.”

According to Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas, the transplant was part of a clinical trial to study infertility treatment options for women who don’t have a functioning uterus, known as Uterine Factor Infertility. CNN says that this condition, which affects five percent of women worldwide, includes women who were born without a uterus, lost their uterus, or no longer have a functioning uterus.

Having a baby after a uterus transplant is no easy feat, and the hospital spelled out exactly how the whole thing worked: The woman underwent IVF to retrieve her own eggs, which were fertilized and then frozen as embryos. Then, the donor womb and cervix were implanted into her body. She had to take immunosuppressive drugs so that her body wouldn’t reject the new organs and, a year after the transplant, an embryo was transferred to her uterus. She gave birth via Cesarean section.

While this mom is the first woman to give birth via a transplanted uterus in the U.S., she's not the first ever—that happened in Sweden in 2014. Since then, eight more babies have been born to moms with transplanted uteruses at the at hospital, CNN reports.

The Cleveland Clinic also performed a successful uterus transplant in 2016, but the uterus had to be removed after the patient developed a yeast infection.

This childbirth success story certainly gives hope to all women who cope with Uterine Factor Infertility, because now, having a baby may really be a viable option for them in the future.