This Baby May Look ‘Normal’ But He’s Actually The First Of His Kind

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251 children are born in the world every minute. 37-year-old Malin Stenberg from Sweeden longed for a child but thought it would never happen. However, she has become the first woman to give birth to a child after receiving a womb transplant.

At the tender age of 15, Stenberg was diagnosed with Mayer-Rokitansky- Küster-Hauser Syndrome (MRKH), a condition that occurs in females and mainly affects the reproductive system. It causes the vagina and uterus to be underdeveloped or absent, although external genitalia are normal.

“I wasn’t ready to hear it; I couldn’t take it in. I thought that this means that I’ll never be able to carry a child of my own – but that is what women are made for. It felt so unfair. I loved kids and babies, and I wanted to know what I had done to deserve this. I felt so alone,” Malin says of learning about her diagnosis.

With no other choice but to accept the news, Malin resigned to the fact that natural motherhood was not going to be an option for her. However, when she met 40-year-old Claes Nilsson, everything changed.

Nilsson wanted children too and wouldn’t accept the notion of not becoming a father. Between them, the couple looked into surrogacy and adoption before stumbling across a new method that was in the experimental stages.

Gothenburg University was doing a project, where the women involved were given the wombs of woman who no longer needed them. Malin signed up and received a family friend, 61-year-old Ewa Rosen’s womb, while the majority of the other eight women involved were given their mother’s wombs.

Speaking about Ewa Rosen, Malin says “She’s incredible. She’s made a great contribution to other people in taking this step to be a donor without any payments or anything: just good will.”

Of course, like most transplant surgeries, there were many risks associated with womb transplants, especially since previous attempts proved unsuccessful. But Malin wouldn’t be deterred and she was determined to succeed where others hadn’t.

Thankfully, her womb transplant was a success and she fell pregnant after a single round of IVF treatment. Malin gave birth to baby Vincint and despite being born two months premature, he is now a thriving baby, one year later.

Milan said recently “Today it feels like we went from nothing at all to having this wonderful boy. It’s more than 100 percent. We are more than happy with this. I couldn’t wish for more.” Understandably ecstatic with their little boy, the parents don’t intend on having any more children. In fact, Malin had her womb removed again because doctors were fearful that another pregnancy would be harmful to both mother and child.

Malin may have been the first woman to give birth thanks to a womb transplant, but in the year since little Vincint’s birth, four other children have been born from transplanted wombs.

Technology is constantly evolving with medical breakthroughs being reported every year. Now other countries have begun looking into womb transplants which one has to admit gives huge hope to women who may be unable to have children.

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