A baby boy named Hugo is the first child to be born in the UK to a mother with a womb transplant from a dead donor.
Hugo Powell was delivered at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea hospital in London weighing 3.09kg (6lb 13oz), after his mother, Grace Bell, received a transplanted womb from someone who had died.
It is the first birth in the UK using a womb from a deceased donor, with only two previous cases reported in Europe.
Bell, an IT programme manager, was born with Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome, a rare condition resulting in an underdeveloped or missing womb.
She was told as a teenager she would be unable to carry a child, and has described Hugo’s birth as a “miracle”. She said: “I never, ever thought that this would be possible. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my life.”
Bell began fertility treatment several months after the transplant in 2024. Hugo was born in December last year.
She said she thought of her womb donor every day and the generosity of the donor’s family. “There are no words to say thank you enough to my donor and her family,” she said. “Their kindness and selflessness to a complete stranger is the reason I have been able to fulfil my lifelong dream of being a mum.”
Five other organs from the donor were transplanted into four people, saving the lives of others.
The donor’s parents said: “Losing our daughter has shattered our world in ways we can barely put into words.”
But they added: “Through organ donation, she has given other families the precious gift of time, hope, healing and now life. As her parents, we feel tremendous pride at the legacy she leaves behind – a legacy of compassion, courage and love that continues to touch lives even after her passing.”
Bell and her partner, Steve Powell, gave Hugo the middle name Richard, after Prof Richard Smith, the clinical lead at the charity Womb Transplant UK and a consultant gynaecological surgeon at Imperial College healthcare NHS trust.
Smith, who was present at the birth, told PA Media: “It’s been an unbelievable journey. Our whole team has been hanging together now for years and years to make this happen. So to me it’s been fantastic, just amazing.”
The transplanted organ will be removed when the couple have finished having children, to save Bell from a lifetime of taking immunosuppressant drugs.
The UK’s first womb transplant, in 2023, involved Grace Davidson, another MRKH patient, receiving a womb – also called the uterus – from her older sister, Amy, in a living donation.
About 25 to 30 babies have been born worldwide from deceased womb donation. More than two-thirds of womb transplants involve living donors and a third come from deceased donors.
The womb is not covered by the normal consent for donation, nor by joining the organ donor register, and it is not covered by deemed consent (which presumes people want to donate unless they opt out). Potential donors’ families will be asked specifically if they are willing to approve a womb donation.
