For the first time in the UK, a woman has given birth following a womb transplant. New mother Grace and father Angus welcomed their baby girl, Amy Isabel, named after her sister Amy, who donated her womb, and Miss Isabel Quiroga, who co-led the transplant operation.
Grace and baby Amy are both doing well following a caesarean section birth at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital in London in February 2025.
This milestone follows over 25 years of pioneering research and innovation by a collaborative team of UK experts led by Professor Richard Smith, a consultant gynaecological surgeon, and Miss Isabel Quiroga, a consultant transplant and endocrine surgeon.
Grace, 36, from the south of England, was born without a functioning womb, preventing her from carrying and giving birth to her own baby. This changed in early 2023 when she became the first woman in the UK to receive a womb transplant, donated by her sister Amy as part of the Womb Transplant UK living donor programme.
Funded by the charity Womb Transplant UK, the programme includes five transplant operations, approved by the Human Tissue Authority. Specialists from Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) NHS Foundation Trust, and The Lister Hospital, part of HCA Healthcare UK, supported Grace throughout her pregnancy and birth.
Professor Richard Smith, Chair of the Womb Transplant UK charity and consultant gynaecological surgeon at Imperial College Healthcare NHS FT, said:
"It's a huge privilege to be part of Grace’s journey. Our whole team are delighted to see Grace and her family so happy with baby Amy. We will all be forever grateful to them for trusting us, and to Amy for donating her womb and giving her sister this opportunity.
"This is the culmination of over 25 years of research, with huge contributions from so many talented people, hospitals and organisations working with our charity Womb Transplant UK. Thank you to each of you, including of course our consultant obstetrician Bryony Jones and the maternity team at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital who did such a brilliant job looking after Grace and baby Amy.
"Our charity-funded programme is still at an early stage. But we hope we will be able to help more women in the near future who are currently unable to conceive or carry their own baby, giving them another option alongside adoption and surrogacy."
The original donor operation and subsequent transplant took place at the Oxford Transplant Centre, part of OUH’s Churchill Hospital. Grace then underwent IVF treatment at HCA UK’s Lister Fertility Clinic in London and was closely monitored at the Churchill Hospital and Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital, where baby Amy was born.
In the UK, one in five thousand women are born without a viable womb, and many others lose their wombs due to cancer or other medical conditions. Globally, over 100 womb transplants have resulted in more than 50 healthy babies. The first successful womb transplant operations were performed in Sweden in 2013.
Amy’s birth is the culmination of over 25 years of womb transplant research in the UK, which has led to the development of several surgical procedures, including the abdominal radical trachelectomy for fertility preservation in women with early-stage cervical cancer, and the modified Strassman Procedure for preserving reproductive potential in women with placental site tumours and other conditions.
Image credit: iStock and Imperial College NHS FT
