Doctors Speak About Baby Born To Woman With Transplanted Uterus

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - It's being called a landmark U.S. clinical trial. A child has been born, at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, to a woman born without a uterus. The woman was able to conceive after receiving a uterus transplant.

News last week of the scheduled Caesarean section birth in the hospital's uterus transplant clinical trial made headlines around the world. This morning doctors involved with the trial and delivery discussed the baby's birth.

Dr. Giuliano Testa, the principal investigator of the uterine transplant clinical trial at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas said, "We are here we are very humbled by understanding the depth of the desire of a woman to carry her own pregnancy. It was probably the one thing that as a man, as a father even, that I totally underestimated."

The hospital has not released the name of the new mother or her husband to protect their privacy, but did release a statement from the parents that said, in part, "We consider ourselves profoundly blessed to have been part of this study, and we are optimistic that this initial success will lead to many more in the future."

Doctors began the clinical trial a year and a half ago and it is ongoing. The goal is to enroll up to 10 women for uterus transplants. In October 2016, officials with Baylor said four women had received transplants but that three of the procedures had failed.

The hospital would give no further information on how many transplants have been performed since then. But Time magazine, which first reported the U.S. baby's birth, says eight have been done in all, and that another woman is currently pregnant as a result.

Dr. Testa called the recent birth, "...a milestone in our work to solve absolute uterine factor infertility; but, more importantly, a beautiful moment of love and hope for a mother who had been told she would never be able to carry her own child."

Uterus transplantation is a complex process between fertility and medical special specialists. It begins with in vitro fertilization, so that the eggs can frozen until they're ready to attempt pregnancy, and then the transplantation of the donated womb and cervix into the patient. The patient has a period of recovery before an embryo is implanted in the uterus. The last phase, if the implantation is successful, is a pregnancy.

On CBS This Monring Dr. Tara Narula explained how uterine transplants are meant to be temporary.

To be eligible for the Baylor study, women must be between 20 and 35 years old, have healthy, normal ovaries but no uterus or one that is non-functioning. Medical specialists say more than 160 people reached out to Baylor about the trial.