A woman in Sweden has given birth to a baby boy using a transplanted womb, in a medical first, doctors report.
Born without a uterus, the 36-year-old mother received a donated womb from a friend in her 60s, reports BBC News.
The main reasons that can cause women to not have a functioning womb are cancer treatment and birth defects.
To have a child of their own, the only option left is surrogacy.
Although he identity of the couple in Sweden has not been released, it has been learned that the mother of the new-born still had functioning ovaries.
To have the baby, the couple had to go through IVF to produce 11 embryos, which were frozen. The womb transplant was then performed by doctors at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
The donor of the womb was a 61-year-old family friend who had gone through her menopause seven years earlier.
Drugs were required to suppress the immune system in order to prevent the womb from being rejected.
One year after the transplant procedure, doctors decided they were ready to implant one of the frozen embryos which resulted in a pregnancy.
Almost 32 weeks into the pregnancy, the mother developed pre-eclampsia and the baby's heart rate became abnormal which caused the baby to be born prematurely.
After the birth, the baby and mother are said to be doing well.
"He's no different from any other child, but he will have a good story to tell,'' says the father of the baby.
