First ever baby born from a transplanted womb is a healthy boy

Well, we certainly live in the future: The Associated Press is reporting that one of the women who received a transplanted womb last year has since given birth. Her baby boy, while premature, is reportedly healthy.

The mother is 36, and was born without a uterus. Her donated organ came from a close family friend -- a 61-year-old woman who'd already had two children of her own and gone through menopause. From the AP:

The recipient has had to take three medicines to prevent her body from rejecting the new organ. About six weeks after the transplant, she got her menstrual period - a sign the womb was healthy.

After one year, when doctors were confident the womb was working well, they transferred a single embryo created in a lab dish using the woman's eggs and her partner's sperm.

The mother's doctor, Mats Brannstrom of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, reported in January that he'd performed nine uterine transplants. Surrogacy isn't legal in Sweden, so for these nine women -- who had either been born without a uterus or had lost them to cervical cancer -- a risky, uncharted transplant was the only way to have their own biological children.

All previous attempts at transplantation had failed, and this child represents the first-ever birth from such a procedure. The baby, Brannstrom told the AP, is "fantastic." Brannstorm tells the AP that two of his other patients are pregnant as well, and at least 25 weeks along.

More details on the case will be published soon in Lancet.