Told She'd Never Get Pregnant, Her Son's Birth Marks UK First

A London couple has welcomed a baby whose birth marks a first for the UK—and a milestone for transplant medicine. Hugo Powell, born in December at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital, is the country's first child delivered by a woman with a transplanted womb from a deceased donor, doctors and his parents have confirmed. Only two similar births had previously been reported in Europe. His mother, 33-year-old IT program manager Grace Bell, was born with Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome, a rare condition that meant she had no functioning uterus, the Guardian reports.

Bell, who was told in her teens she would never get pregnant, underwent a womb transplant in 2024, then fertility treatment, and later delivered Hugo, weighing 6 pounds and 13 ounces, by C-section. Bell says she thinks daily about the donor and her family, calling their decision an act of "kindness and selflessness" that means she is now "the happiest I've ever been in my life." The donor's womb was one of six organs transplanted, benefiting four recipients. Bell and her partner, Steve Powell, gave Hugo the middle name Richard, in honor of Prof. Richard Smith, an expert in womb transplantation who was present for the birth, per the BBC. The uterus will be removed once the couple decide their family is complete, so Bell can stop taking anti-rejection drugs.