India’s first baby born after uterine transplant delivered in Pune

Pune becomes the first city in India to have a baby girl delivered after successful uterine transplant 17 months back. The team at Galaxy Hospital Pune delivered the 1,4-kg baby girl at 12.12 am, after a 12-minute Cesarean section operation. Tears rolled down the cheeks of Meenakshi, 27 when she heard the robust cry of her baby girl.

Meenakshi received the uterus from her mother, thus giving birth to her daughter out of the same womb from which she was born. Meenakshi had Asherman’s syndrome after one term stillbirth and 5 miscarriages, one of which ended in uterine and bowel perforation.

She received a laparoscopic uterine transplant on May 18-19, 2017. The transplants in the US and Sweden were performed by open surgeries, but Meenakshi’s case both the organ retrieval and transplant were performed laparoscopically.

Meenakshi conceived after the first embryo transfer in March this year. She was kept under close observation for the last 5 months in the Galaxy Hospital. She developed borderline gestational diabetes because of immunosuppressant drugs.

She also developed Pregnancy Induced Hypertension and was scheduled for an elective cesarean at 34 weeks. However, her Amniotic fluid index fell sharply, and the team has to perform an emergency cesarean section at 12.12 A.M. on Thursday, October 18, 2018.

The man behind the first uterine transplant in India is Dr. Shailesh Puntambekar, a cancer surgeon, specialized in laparoscopic cancer surgery. He is considered as an expert in laparoscopic pelvic surgery and gynecological cancer surgery in the world and has developed laparoscopic radical hysterectomy for cancer cervix known world over as the 'Pune technique.'

Speaking about the first baby girl delivered he said, “History has been created. This is, in fact, a very proud moment for India, as figures show that this is the twelfth baby in the world to be born through a uterus transplant. Nine such babies were born in Sweden, two in the United States, and now this is the first one in all of Asia.”

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First US baby born after uterine transplant delivered in Texas

Dr showing the baby to mother. Courtesy Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas

The first birth as a result of  uterine transplant in the United States took place on Friday in Texas at the Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. The women had undergone a live donor transplant and have received her uterus from Taylor Siler, 36, a registered nurse in the Dallas area.

The boy delivered by elective cesarean section is just named “baby number 9, as he is the 9th person in the world to be born out of transplanted uterus. 

“We’ve been preparing for this moment for a very long time,” says Dr. Liza Johannesson, an ob-gyn and uterus transplant surgeon at Baylor. “I think everyone had tears in their eyes when the baby came out. I did for sure.” The woman and her husband asked that their identity not be revealed in order to protect their privacy.

This is the first baby born as a part of hospital’s ongoing uterus transplant clinical trial, being conducted by Baylor Scott & White Research Institute. Uterine transplant is offered to patients with absolute uterine factor infertility (AUI). Most of the women in the trial have a condition called Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome.

The trial is expected to enroll 10 patients and will end in January 2026. So far, there are 8 women enrolled in the study who have received a uterine transplant. Out of which 3 have failed and there is an additional ongoing pregnancy in a woman who received a live donor transplant.  

A similar trial was conducted in Sweden for women with uterine factor infertility, which resulted in seven uterine transplants and four live births. In September 2014, Mats Brännström and colleagues report the first successful birth of a child following uterus transplantation. The recipient, a 35-year-old woman lacking a uterus (Rokitansky syndrome), received a cryopreserved embryo 1 year after transplantation, leading to a livebirth by caesarean section.

Giuliano Testa, MD, principal investigator of the uterine transplant clinical trial at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas said, “This first live birth to a uterus transplant recipient in the United States was a milestone in our work to solve absolute uterine factor infertility; but, more importantly, a beautiful moment of love and hope for a mother who had been told she would never be able to carry her own child.”