Couple welcome first baby born from a uterus transplant outside clinical trial

(BIRMINGHAM, Ala.) — The first baby has been born from a transplanted uterus, outside of a clinical trial, the University of Alabama at Birmingham announced Monday.

UAB said the birth occurred via a planned cesarean section in late May, and mom Mallory — who prefers to be identified only by her first name for privacy reasons — and her baby boy are healthy.

Mallory had been diagnosed over two decades ago with Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome, a rare condition characterized by the absence of a uterus or an underdeveloped uterus and vagina, according to the National Institutes of Health.

“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.

Mallory was accepted into and joined the uterus transplant program at UAB Medicine, and she and her husband Nick and their daughter had to relocate to Birmingham for over a year. She received a donated uterus from a deceased donor through the nonprofit Legacy of Hope.

Aside from a uterus transplant, Mallory also underwent an in vitro fertilization process before a high-risk pregnancy and delivery. The entire process took nearly 18 months, according to UAB.

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.

“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,” Dr. Anupam Agarwal, UAB’s senior vice president for medicine, said in a statement.

“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. Their work with Mallory and our other transplant recipients and pregnancies to date has just been phenomenal,” Agarwal added.

With the arrival of their son, Mallory and Nick are now parents of two. The couple also have a daughter, whom they welcomed with the help of Mallory’s sister, who was their gestational surrogate.