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First British Baby Born Using Transplanted Womb From Dead Donor
A 10-week-old boy named Hugo has become the first baby born in the UK from a womb transplanted from a deceased donor, after his mother Grace Bell — who was born without a viable womb due to a condition called MRKH syndrome, which affects one in every 5,000 women — underwent a 10-hour transplant operation at The Churchill Hospital in Oxford in June 2024.
Hugo was born just before Christmas 2025, weighing nearly 7lbs, at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital in west London, following IVF treatment and embryo transfer at The Lister Fertility Clinic. Bell’s transplant is one of three completed so far as part of a UK clinical research trial that plans to carry out 10 such procedures from deceased donors, and Hugo is the first baby born from any of them.
Earlier in 2025, a separate effort produced baby Amy, the first UK birth from a living womb donation — her mother had received her older sister’s womb in January 2023. Globally, more than 100 womb transplants have been performed, resulting in over 70 healthy births.