Baby Born at Just 21-Weeks After World’s First Womb Transplant Turns One

National   |   Sarah Zagorski   |   Sep 21, 2015   |   3:36PM   |   Washington, DC

In the United Kingdom, a baby born after the world’s first womb transplant has turned one. In September 2014, Vincent was born to Malin Stenberg and Claes Nilsson by caesarean section at 21-weeks. The Daily Mail reports that Stenberg was born without a womb and never thought you would be able to have children. However, when she met partner Claes Nilsson she began to look into other options because he wanted to have children.

She said the following about being a mother: “It’s a fantastic feeling. Just to be able to have these days with this healthy and wild kid, it’s beautiful. We’re very, very happy.” Stenberg joined a medical trial that was being conducted at Gothenburg University with nine other women looking to become mothers. Although most of the women in the trial received wombs from family members (specifically their own mothers), Stenberg’s donor was 61-year-old family friend Ewa Rosen.

Stenberg said, “She’s incredible. She’s really made a great contribution to other people in taking this step to be a donor without any payments or anything: just good will.” She added, “She’s godmother to Vincent and we have a very close relationship. She calls Vincent her seventh miracle. She has two of her own boys, and she has four grand kids, so he’s number seven.”

The new mother remained anonymous for a while but has chosen to speak out now to give other women hope and encourage them to pursue their dream of having a child. Currently, there are 15,000 British women living in the United Kingdom born without wombs or have had to have the organ removed because of medical reasons. Stenberg concluded, “Today it feels like we went from nothing at all to having this wonderful boy. It’s more than 100 percent. We are more than happy with this. I couldn’t wish for more.”

As LifeNews previously reported, two women gave birth using wombs donated to them by their own mothers in November 2014. Allan Pacey from the British Fertility Association explained why the births are really good news for the medical community. He said, “This is a very good success rate for a new surgical procedure. If it carries on like this it may have a massive impact on things like surrogacy. Women much prefer to have their own baby and be pregnant than to watch another woman be pregnant.”

Amazingly, there were no complications during delivery and the first child was born to a 29-year-old born without a womb and her son weighed 5lb 8oz. The second baby weighed 5lb 15oz and was born to a 34-year-old woman who had to have her womb remove because of cancer.

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Dr. Dagan Wells from Oxford University also commented on the success of the womb transplants and healthy births. He said, “The numbers are still small and we probably don’t have a good handle on the true safety or how often it will be successful. But from the data available, we can say that it is looking pretty good.

That could raise the possibility of wider application – there are significant numbers of women in the population who would have perfect fertility if it was not for a problem with their womb. It is a pretty radical thing to undergo but the fact that some women have done it, even when it is in this experimental phase, really does emphasize how important it is for some women to carry their own child. I am not saying that this is the way that everyone should go but for some people, it clearly is very important.”

Although many believe womb transplants are wonderful for pro-life culture, some Catholics are concerned that they put three lives at risk: the life of the donor, the baby and the mother. Justina Miller, a Catholic writer in southern California, explained, “As Christians, even as humans, we are drawn to love life. While it is our responsibility to show compassion to parents struggling with fertility, we must also encourage parents to pursue conception in a way that respects the human dignity and rights of all parties involved.”

She added, “Donum Vitae tells us that, ‘a true and proper right to a child would be contrary to the child’s dignity and nature. The child is not an object to which one has a right, nor can he be considered as an object of ownership: rather, a child is a gift, ‘the supreme gift’ and the most gratuitous gift of marriage, and is a living testimony of the mutual giving of his parents.’”

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