A baby boy has become the first child in the UK to be born using a womb transplanted from a dead donor.
Grace Bell, who is in her 30s and was born without a viable womb, says her little boy Hugo, who is now 10 weeks old, is “simply a miracle”.
Bell and her partner Steve Powell, from Kent, paid tribute to the “kindness and selflessness” of the donor and her family for their “incredible gift”, while also thanking medical teams in Oxford and London who supported their journey.
The surgeons involved said the birth was “a ground-breaking moment”, which could give hope to many more women with a similar diagnosis.
‘Incredible gift’
Hugo was born just before Christmas 2025, weighing nearly 7lbs, at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital in west London.
Bell is one of around 5,000 women in the UK affected by a condition called MRKH syndrome, which means she was born without a womb and doesn’t have periods but does have normal ovaries.
At the age of 16, she was told she wouldn’t be able to carry her own child.
To have a baby, the couple’s only option was to hope for a womb transplant or go down the route of surrogacy.
When she received a phone call saying a womb had been donated and a transplant was possible, Bell remembers being “in complete shock” and “really excited”.
But she was also acutely aware of the donor family’s “incredible gift”, which would enable her to carry and give birth to her own child.
“I think of my donor and her family every day and pray they find some peace in knowing their daughter gave me the biggest gift: the gift of life,” Bell said.
“A part of her will live on forever.”
Bell’s womb transplant operation lasted 10 hours and took place at The Churchill Hospital in Oxford in June 2024, before the couple received IVF treatment some months later – followed by embryo transfer – at The Lister Fertility Clinic in London.
When Hugo was born, Bell said: “It was simply a miracle.
“I remember waking up in the morning and seeing his little face, with his little dummy in, and it felt like I needed to wake up from a dream.
“It was just incredible.”
Bell’s successful womb transplant from a deceased donor is just one of 10 such transplants taking place as part of a UK clinical research trial. Three have already been carried out, but this is the first baby born.
In early 2025, baby Amy was born through the first living womb donation in the UK. Her mother received her older sister’s womb in a transplant operation in January 2023. Her sister had already had two children of her own.
Five other womb transplants from close living relatives in the UK are planned.
Hope for women born without a womb
Amy was born at the same London hospital as Hugo. The medical team behind both births has been building towards this moment for many years.
Consultant gynaecologist Prof Richard Smith, from Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, started researching womb transplantation more than 25 years ago and was present at Hugo’s birth. He said “a huge team of people” had been involved in the process – from the transplant operation to the embryo transfer and the delivery itself.
Bell and Powell showed their gratitude to Smith, who also founded the charity Womb Transplant UK, by giving their son a middle name of Richard.
The couple may decide to have a second baby, after which surgeons will remove the transplanted womb. This is to save Bell from taking a lifetime of strong drugs to prevent the body’s immune system attacking the transplanted organ.
Transplant surgeon and joint team leader Isabel Quiroga said she was “delighted” by Hugo’s birth and called it a breakthrough for organ transplantation in the UK.
“Very few babies have been born in Europe as a result of their mothers receiving a womb from a deceased donor,” she said.
“Our trial is seeking to discover whether this procedure could become an approved and regular treatment for some of the increasing number of women of child-bearing age who do not have a viable womb.”
Smith said the birth showed that girls and young women who were told they didn’t have a womb could now have hope of carrying their own child.
A baby born following the transplantation of a womb from a deceased donor does not have any genetic links with the donor.
More than 100 womb transplant operations have been performed around the world and more than 70 healthy babies have been born as a result.
Donating a womb for transplant is not like donating other organs, such as the kidneys or heart – it is only allowed through a special request to potential donors’ families who have already agreed to donate their relative’s organs.
In the UK, unless you have decided to opt out of donating your organs, it is assumed you agree to be an organ donor when you die.
The parents of the donor, who wish to remain anonymous, said they felt “tremendous pride” at the legacy left by their daughter.
She donated five other organs which were transplanted into four people.
“Through organ donation, she has given other families the precious gift of time, hope, healing and now life,” her family said.
