For the first time in the United States, a woman who was born without a uterus gave birth to a baby. The landmark birth took place at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas, a part of Baylor Scott & White, TIME reports exclusively.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been preparing for this moment for a very long time,\u201d says Dr. Liza Johannesson, an ob-gyn and uterus transplant surgeon at Baylor. \u201cI think everyone had tears in their eyes when the baby came out. I did for sure.\u201d The woman and her husband asked that their identity not be revealed in order to protect their privacy.<\/p>\n
The birth took place at Baylor \u2014 the first birth in the hospital\u2019s ongoing\u00a0uterus transplant clinical trial<\/a>. Women who participate in the trial have what\u2019s called absolute uterine factor infertility (AUI), which means their uterus is nonfunctioning or nonexistent. Most of the women in the trial have a condition called Mayer-Rokitansky-K\u00fcster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome \u2014 and have lived their entire lives under the assumption that they would never be able to be pregnant or give birth to a baby. The procedure could also work for women with other medical issues, such as certain cancers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do transplants all day long,\u201d says Dr. Giuliano Testa, the leader of the\u00a0uterus transplant clinical trial at Baylor<\/a>, and surgical chief of abdominal transplant for Baylor Annette C. and Harold C. Simmons Transplant Institute. \u201cThis is not the same thing. I totally underestimated what this type of transplant does for these women. What I\u2019ve learned emotionally, I do not have the words to describe.\u201d<\/p>\n The birth was a scheduled Caesarean section, and most members of the multidisciplinary clinical trial team were present. The baby was delivered healthy and screaming. \u201cI\u2019ve delivered a lot of babies, but this one was special,\u201d says Dr. Robert T. Gunby Jr., the obstetrician and gynecologist who delivered the baby. \u201cWhen I started my career we didn\u2019t even have sonograms. Now we are putting in uteruses from someone else and getting a baby.\u201d<\/p>\n The moment Dr. Gunby first held up the baby was emotional for many members of the medical team. \u201cOutside my own children, this is the most excited I\u2019ve ever been about any baby being born,\u201d says Dr. Gregory J. McKenna, a transplant surgeon at Baylor. \u201cI just started to cry.\u201d<\/p>\n Taylor Siler, 36, a registered nurse in the Dallas area, donated her uterus to the woman who recently gave birth. Siler wasn\u2019t always certain she wanted to have children, but she says deciding to get pregnant was one of her best decisions. \u201cOnce they lay that baby in your arms,\u201d Siler says. \u201cYour life changes forever.\u201d<\/p>\n Siler, who has two boys aged 6 and 4, came across a news segment about Baylor\u2019s uterus transplant program. She and her husband had already decided they were not going to have any more children, and she wanted to offer someone else a shot at motherhood. \u201cI have family members who struggled to have babies, and it\u2019s not fair,\u201d says Siler. \u201cI just think that if we can give more people that option, that\u2019s an awesome thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Siler went through extensive screening about both her physical and mental health before getting approval for the trial. Participating required surgery and about 12 weeks of recovery. Baylor says it typically takes about five hours for the wombs to be removed from the living donors, and another five to transplant.<\/p>\n Though she did not know the woman who received her uterus, Siler and the recipient exchanged letters on the day of the surgery, and the recipient sent Siler another letter to let her know when she was pregnant. Baylor informed Siler this week that the woman had given birth. \u201cI\u2019ve just been crying and getting teary thinking about it, \u201c says Siler, who had not yet met the new mother when she spoke to TIME. \u201cI think about her every day and I probably will for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\nA donor\u2019s gift<\/b><\/h2>\n
How a uterus transplant works<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/imagesvc.timeincapp.com\/v3\/mm\/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftimedotcom.files.wordpress.com%2F2017%2F12%2For-baby-photo-2-small-copy.jpg&w=800&q=85\")
<\/p>\n