Doctors in Brazil say they delivered the first-ever baby born from a uterus that was transplanted from a deceased donor.
According to a case report published in the medical journal Lancet on Tuesday, the baby girl was delivered last December to a 32-year-old woman who was born without a uterus. The mother used the uterus of a 45-year-old woman who had three previous children and died of a stroke.
Doctors at the Hospital das Clínicas at the Universidade de São Paulo in Brazil transplanted the uterus into the mother during a 10-hour surgery in Sept. 2016. Seven months later, doctors implanted the uterus with one of the woman's own eggs.
The baby was delivered after 36 weeks of pregnancy via a cesarean section on Dec. 15, 2017. The uterus was removed from the mother so she could stop anti-rejection medication.
Nearly a year later, both the baby and her mother are healthy.
The New York Times reported that since 2013, at least 11 babies have been born from uterine transplants from living donors. The case report says the successful transplant and birth in Brazil opens a path "to healthy pregnancy for all women with uterine factor infertility, without need of living donors or live donor surgery."
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