Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome: women with this syndrome have an underdeveloped or missing womb. However, they have intact and functioning ovaries that even produce eggs and female hormones, making conceiving via fertility treatment a possibility. It is a rare syndrome that affects around one in every 5,000 women.
Today, we are talking of the world’s first ever successful birth of a baby to a mother who was born with this Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome. That is Mother Grace, a new mother to baby Amy Isabel. Grace is the first woman to receive a womb transplant in the UK in August 2023. The transplant took place after her sister Amy donated her own womb as part of the Womb Transplant UK living donor program.
Before getting the donated womb, the couple (Grace and her husband) undertook a fertility treatment to create seven embryos, which were frozen for IVF in central London. Grace then under surgery in February 2023 where he received the womb from her sister Amy Purdie. Several months later, they took one of the stored embryos and transferred it via IVF to Grace.
The transplant was carried out at the Oxford Transplant Centre and co-led by Miss Isabel Quiroga, a Consultant Transplant and Endocrine Surgeon at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Professor Richard Smith, Consultant Gynecological Surgeon at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.
Finally, it became a UK first! After over 25 years of research, On 27th February-2025 a woman has given birth to a baby girl of 2kg following a womb transplant. Baby amy was born following the planned cesarean section birth at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital where they stayed for about a week to establish breastfeeding.
Baby Amy Isabel was named in honor of both her aunt Amy who donated a womb to her mother Grace and Miss Isabel Quiroga, the one who co-led her mother’s womb transplant operation.
New mum, Grace, said: ‘We have been given the greatest gift we could ever have asked for. But we are very aware that for many couples who have gone before us, carrying a baby could only be a dream. We sincerely hope that going forward this could become a wonderful reality, and provide an additional option, for women who would otherwise be unable to carry their own child.’
Grace’s sister, Amy, said: ‘What a privilege it is to be able to give something that in many ways I took for granted. Watching Grace and Angus become parents has been an absolute joy and worth every moment. I feel eternally grateful to be part of their journey.’
Mr Davidson said the moment his daughter arrived was very emotional.
“She came out crying, and we were a bit worried she would be whisked off to an antenatal ward, but she’s been with us every minute of her life so we’re so grateful for that,” he said.
“It had been such a long wait. We’d been intending to have a family somehow since we were married, and we’ve kind of been on this journey for such a long time.
“Having waited such a long time, it’s kind of odd getting your head around that this is the moment where you are going to meet your daughter.
“The room was full of people who have helped us on the journey to having Amy.
“We had been kind of suppressing emotion, probably for 10 years, and you don’t know how that’s going to come out – ugly crying it turns out!
“The room was just so full of love and joy and all these people that had a vested interest in Amy for incredible medical and science reasons.
“But the lines between that and the love for our family and for Amy are very much blurred – it felt like a room full of love.
“The moment we saw her was incredible, and both of us just broke down in emotional tears – it’s hard to describe.”
Author: Helene T.
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