A baby boy has become the first child in the UK to be born using a womb transplanted from a deceased 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.
First British baby born using transplanted womb from deceased donor
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BBC A young couple sit on a sofa. The woman cradles a newborn baby in her arms. BBC
Grace Bell and her partner Steve Powell say their little boy Hugo is a “miracle”
A baby boy has become the first child in the UK to be born using a womb transplanted from a deceased 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.”
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