A groundbreaking first took place in England. An English woman who received her sister’s womb transplant gave birth to a healthy baby girl. The baby girl is dubbed the “miracle baby” by the British press.

Grace Davidson, 36, who was born without a womb in England, gave birth on February 27 thanks to a womb transplant. Grace had received her sister’s womb transplant in 2023, which was the only successful womb transplant in the UK at the time. The newborn was named after the sister who donated her womb, Amy Purdie, a 42-year-old mother of two.

17-HOUR OPERATION Amy underwent an eight-hour surgery to donate her womb to her sister and went through weeks of recovery. A team of over 30 healthcare professionals worked for approximately 17 hours to remove Amy’s womb and transplant it to Grace. The selfless woman stated that she did not feel uncomfortable during this process and saw giving her sister the chance to have a baby as a “great privilege.”

HOPES TO BE A MOTHER AGAIN New mother Grace described holding her baby, weighing about two kilograms, for the first time as “unbelievable and surreal.” Grace and her husband Angus, who reside in North London and are originally from Scotland, hope to have a second child through the transplanted womb. Grace will have her womb removed within five years so she can stop taking medication that suppresses her immune system, which increases her cancer risk. These medications are currently used to prevent Grace’s body from rejecting her sister’s womb. BABY’S NAME FROM DOCTOR The baby’s name was given by Isabel Quiroga, a transplant and endocrine surgeon at the Oxford Churchill Hospital who led the 17-hour operation. The first baby born as a result of a womb transplant was in Sweden in 2014. Since then, around 135 transplants have been performed in over a dozen countries, including the US, China, France, Germany, India, and Turkey, resulting in around 65 babies.