Weighing in at 4.4 pounds and measuring in at approximately 19 inches in length, the child was delivered early on Sunday by a caesarean section at Xijing Hospital in China's Shaanxi province in an effort to reduce the pressure on the womb, the South China Morning Post reported. The baby is currently being kept in an incubator.
According to Xinhua, the child's mother, identified by the GB Times as 26-year-old Yang Hua, was born without a uterus, but did have ovaries. Knowing that her daughter wanted to have a child, Yang's mother, who was 43 years old at the time, opted to offer up her uterus so that the transplant could be carried out.
Using assisted reproductive technology, officials were able to extract 14 embryos from Yang in August 2015 prior to the transplant surgery. Once the procedure was completed and Yang was given ample time to rest, the frozen embryos were implanted in June 2018.
Doctors were able to successfully implant an embryo on the fifth attempt, according to the Post.
Two weeks after the embryo was implanted, officials discovered that Yang was pregnant. For the duration of the pregnancy, medical staffers then administered her a variety of immune anti-rejection medications and offered multiple ultrasounds and hormone level checkups.
Yang is reportedly considering attempting to have a second child. Per Xinhua, Yang's child is now considered the world's 14th to be born from a transplanted uterus.
Asia Times reported that the world's very first uterus transplant took place in 2000 on a woman in Saudi Arabia. However, that transplant failed after three months, forcing officials to conduct another surgery to remove it.
