Grace Davidson, 36, has become the first woman in the UK to give birth following a womb transplant, marking a groundbreaking medical achievement. Her daughter, Amy Isabel, was delivered via planned caesarean on 27 February at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital in London.
A Sister’s Gift and a Dream Realised
Grace was born with Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome, a rare condition affecting about one in 5,000 women, which means she was born without a womb. In 2023, her sister Amy Purdie donated her womb during an eight-hour surgery. Fertility treatment before the operation created embryos, one of which was successfully implanted months after the transplant.
Grace and her husband Angus Davidson, 37, had long hoped the procedure would allow them to become parents. Upon holding their baby, Grace said: “It was hard to believe she was real.”
Angus added that the delivery room was filled with emotion and joy: “We broke down in tears. The love in the room was overwhelming.”
A Breakthrough Years in the Making
The transplant was part of a programme by Womb Transplant UK, which has approval for 10 deceased and five living donor transplants. So far, three other transplants in the UK have used deceased donors, and more than 100 have been performed worldwide, with over 50 babies born.
Professor Richard Smith, who led the UK research for 25 years, called the moment “astonishing.” Surgeon Isabel Quiroga, who assisted in the transplant and whom baby Amy is partly named after, described it as “total joy.”
Grace took immunosuppressants during pregnancy to prevent rejection of the transplanted womb. She now hopes to have another child.
This historic birth offers new hope for women without a functioning womb and could pave the way for expanded NHS support in the future.