First UK baby born after deceased-donor womb transplant

Grace Bell grew up hearing she would never carry a baby. This winter in west London, she and her partner, Steve Powell, watched their son, Hugo, yawn under soft ward lights. Their first words were thank-yous - to a donor they never met and to the family who agreed to share her womb after her death.

Doctors confirm Hugo is the first child in the UK born after a womb transplant from a deceased donor. He arrived just before Christmas 2025 at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital, weighing close to 7lb, and is now 10 weeks old. Bell, in her thirties and from Kent, still calls it a miracle.

Let’s start with MRKH, the condition Bell lives with. Around 5,000 women in the UK have Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome. You are born without a womb and do not have periods, but your ovaries usually work, so eggs can be collected for IVF even though you cannot carry a pregnancy without a uterus.

In June 2024, surgeons at The Churchill Hospital in Oxford transplanted a donated womb into Bell during a 10-hour operation. After recovery, specialists at The Lister Fertility Clinic in London carried out IVF and then transferred an embryo. Months after the call that a suitable organ was available - a moment she remembers as shock mixed with gratitude - she felt the first flutters of the baby she would carry.

Her operation sits within a UK clinical research trial exploring deceased-donor womb transplantation. The team plans up to 10 such procedures; three have been completed so far, and Hugo is the first baby to arrive from this pathway. Earlier, in early 2025, baby Amy was born at the same hospital after a living donation: her mother had received her older sister’s womb in January 2023.

Let’s break down the science in plain language. Surgeons connect the donor uterus and blood vessels so it can receive blood and function. The recipient takes medicines to stop the body rejecting the organ. Because fallopian tubes are not connected in these transplants, conception uses IVF. The baby has no genetic link to the donor - genetics come from the parents’ egg and sperm.

Anti-rejection medicines are powerful and, taken for life, can have side effects. That is why womb transplants are designed to be temporary. Bell and Powell may try for a second child and then have the uterus removed, ending the need for long-term immunosuppression while keeping the family they hoped for.

Organ donation rules matter here. The UK uses an opt-out system for most organs, but uterus donation is different: it relies on a specific request to families who have already agreed to donate their relative’s organs. In short, these births begin with a difficult conversation - and families who say yes change strangers’ futures.

This story also belongs to a long-running medical effort. Consultant gynaecologist Prof Richard Smith at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust has researched womb transplantation for more than 25 years and was present at Hugo’s birth. He also founded the charity Womb Transplant UK. In a quiet tribute, the couple chose Richard as their son’s middle name.

Globally, more than 100 womb transplants have been performed and over 70 healthy babies have been born. Only a small number in Europe have followed the deceased-donor route, which is why UK clinicians - including transplant surgeon and team co-lead Isabel Quiroga in Oxford - describe Hugo’s arrival as a breakthrough for the field.

What this means, if you are learning about MRKH or infertility, is hope paired with care. This is still a clinical trial, offered to carefully selected patients by highly trained teams. If approved as a routine option in time, it would sit alongside adoption and surrogacy as another way to build a family.

The donor’s parents, who wish to stay anonymous, speak of pride in their daughter’s legacy. Alongside the uterus, she donated five other organs that helped four people. Bell and Powell say they think of the donor family every day. A part of their child’s story will always be the kindness of strangers and the science that made their meeting possible.