瑞典女”借宮生子“成功誕下男嬰 乃全球首例
A 36-year-old Swedish woman born without a uterus made medical history when she gave birth by womb transplant in late September. The woman received a womb donation from a friend who had undergone menopause several years earlier, the BBC reports.
The baby was born prematurely, just 32 weeks into the pregnancy, and weighed 3.9 lb (1.8 kg). His parents christened him Vincent, a name that means ‘to conquer.’ “As soon as I felt this perfect baby boy on my chest, I had tears of happiness and enormous relief,” the woman told the Associated Press Saturday. “I felt like a mother the first time I touched my baby and was amazed that we finally did it." Vincent was delivered via cesarean section and was kept in the hospital for ten days before being released.
The mother, who preferred not to disclose her identity, learned that she didn’t have a uterus at age 15 but that she still had functioning ovaries. A decade later she discovered that womb transplant research was being conducted at the University of Gothenburg and Stockholm by Dr. Mats Brannstrom, a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She then signed up for research without thinking twice.
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For the procedure, she received a womb transplant from a friend, 61, who had previously given birth to two sons. She is now Vincent’s godmother.
The woman underwent in vitro fertilization and produced 11 frozen embryos, then had the womb transplant with the help of researchers at the University of Gothenberg, according to BBC. One year later, researchers inserted one of the embryos into the woman’s womb, and she was then able to conceive. Three separate medications had to be administered so that the womb wouldn’t be rejected.
Upon birth, the baby’s heart rate was abnormal due to complications from pre-eclampsia, a condition that affects some mothers during pregnancy. Now, the baby and the mother are both reportedly healthy.
“It was a pretty tough journey over the years, but we now have the most amazing baby,” said the father, who wished to remain anonymous, in an interview with Associated Press on Saturday. The couple aren’t sure whether they will try again and have a second child, but they said they’d be willing to undergo the procedure again.
Surgeons said it had taken over ten years of surgical training and research on animals for the procedure to be viable. One of the gynaecological surgeons on the team, Liza Johannesson, said that the revolutionary procedure would “give hope to those women and men who thought they would never have a child, that thought they were out of hope.” The results of the research will be detailed soon in the Lancet medical journal.
The surgical team is reportedly working on the procedure with eight other couples, and Dr. Brannstrom confirmed that two of those pregnancies are at least 25 weeks along. Depending on whether or not further results are successful, it will be determined whether or not the procedure is completely safe and effective. It could potentially provide viable options to women who previously couldn’t conceive.
Two other medical teams had tried womb transplants, in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, several years back. One ended in a miscarriage, and the other had to be removed, due to a disease, after three months.以下爲中文快訊：
所謂子宮移植，是指利用移植後的子宮來孕育嬰兒，以達到令先天沒有子宮或由於病患切除子宮的的女性也能懷孕生子的目的。
日前，全球首個在“移植子宮”內孕育的嬰兒在瑞典出生。這爲全球數以萬計的沒有子宮的不孕不育女性帶來希望，她們將重新獲得做母親的機會。
據英國媒體10月3日報道，這位瑞典的新晉媽媽今年36歲，她天生沒有子宮，但卵巢功能良好。她和丈夫經過試管受精得到11個受精卵，並冷凍起來爲孕育子女做好準備。
去年年初，來自瑞典哥德堡市的薩赫爾格雷斯卡大學醫院的醫生們爲這名女子成功進行子宮移植手術。被移植的子宮由她的一位61歲的朋友捐贈，此人已經絕經多年。今年1月，醫生認爲時機成熟，決定將一顆受精卵放入移植子宮內，隨後這名瑞典女子成功受孕。懷孕31周時，因出現威脅母子生命安全的併發症，她通過剖腹產下一個體重約1.8公斤的男嬰。目前，母子二人情況良好，現已出院回家休養。
日前接受媒體採訪時，孩子的父親顯得非常激動，他頗有感慨地說：“這些年來，我們一路走得很艱難，但這都是值得的，我們有了一個如此棒的孩子。他跟其他孩子沒有任何不同，他未來的生活一定會很美好。”
不少醫學專家認爲，首個在“移植子宮”孕育的嬰兒出生是一個令人歡欣鼓舞的好消息，這給遭遇同種困擾的不孕不育女性帶來希望，振興世界各地的類似項目。然而，這個方法是有爭議的，因爲它涉及從活着的捐獻者體內取出子宮，同時被捐贈者需接受強效的免疫抑制劑藥物，對於捐贈和被捐贈雙方而言，都風險巨大。
2000年，一名沙特女性進行了世界首例子宮移植，但術後3個多月因血栓被迫摘除。2011年，土耳其曾完成過一例子宮移植手術，子宮接受者還於2013年通過體外授精成功懷孕，但之後流產。2012年到2013年，瑞典曾實施過9例子宮移植手術，但迄今只有一例成功誕下嬰兒。
