First UK baby born after womb transplant

A baby boy is the first in the UK to be born after a womb transplant from a deceased donor, a development doctors say could offer hope to women born without a womb.

Grace Bell, in her 30s and from Kent, was born with MRKH syndrome, a condition in which a woman is born without a viable womb. She does not have periods but has normal ovaries.

At 16, she was told she would not be able to carry her own child.

As reported by the BBC, Bell’s womb transplant took 10 hours and was carried out at The Churchill Hospital in Oxford in June 2024.

Several months later, the couple underwent IVF treatment, followed by embryo transfer, at The Lister Fertility Clinic in London.

Her son, Hugo, was born just before Christmas 2025 at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital in west London, weighing nearly 7lbs. He is now 10 weeks old.

Bell said: “It was simply a miracle. 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.”

Bell and her partner Steve Powell paid tribute to the donor and her family.

Bell said: “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. A part of her will live on forever.”

The successful transplant is one of 10 deceased donor womb transplants taking place as part of a UK clinical research trial.

Three have already been carried out, but Hugo is the first baby born.

In early 2025, a baby called Amy was born through the first living womb donation in the UK, at the same London hospital.

Her mother received her older sister’s womb in a transplant operation in January 2023. Five further womb transplants from close living relatives are planned.

Consultant gynaecologist Prof Richard Smith, from Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, who began researching womb transplantation more than 25 years ago and was present at Hugo’s birth, said “a huge team of people” had been involved, from the transplant operation to embryo transfer and delivery.

Bell and Powell gave their son the middle name Richard in tribute to Smith, who also founded the charity Womb Transplant UK.

The couple may decide to have a second baby, after which surgeons plan to remove the transplanted womb.

This is to spare Bell from taking a lifetime of strong drugs to prevent the immune system attacking the transplanted organ.

Transplant surgeon and joint team leader Isabel Quiroga said she was “delighted” by Hugo’s birth and described it as a breakthrough for organ transplantation in the UK.

“Very few babies have been born in Europe as a result of their mothers receiving a womb from a deceased donor,” she said.

“Our trial is seeking to discover whether this procedure could become an approved and regular treatment for some of the increasing number of women of child-bearing age who do not have a viable womb.

Smith said the birth showed that girls and young women told they did not have a womb could now have hope of carrying their own child.

A baby born following a womb transplant from a deceased donor has no genetic link to the donor.

More than 100 womb transplant operations have been performed worldwide and more than 70 healthy babies have been born as a result.

Donating a womb for transplant differs from donating other organs, such as kidneys or a heart, as it requires a specific request to families who have already agreed to organ donation.

The donor’s parents, who wish to remain anonymous, said they felt “tremendous pride” in the legacy left by their daughter. She also donated five other organs, which were transplanted into four people.

“Through organ donation, she has given other families the precious gift of time, hope, healing and now life,” her family said.