Asia's first uterine transplant baby was born at Galaxy Care Hospital in Pune on Thursday. The baby girl became the 12th baby in the world to be born through uterine transplant.
Meenakshi Walan, 27, from Vadodara, underwent a uterine transplant in 2017. in 2017. Walan had earlier lost two babies after completing full-term pregnancies. Walan received the uterus from her mother as her uterus had become non-functional following four miscarriages. After undergoing the uterus transplant surgery, she conceived through IVF and delivered the baby girl at 12.12 am on Thursday. The baby weighs 1.450 kg.
Read more: Mother's womb, daughter's, too
Before gearing up for India's first uterine transplantation, Dr Shailesh Puntambekar of Galaxy Care was hopeful that Dr Matts Brännström, a Swedish doctor who performed the first uterus transplant surgery in the world, would come to Galaxy Care to assist him. Brännström, however, had a change of mind and didn't turn up for the transplant. Rumours were rife that an infertility specialist, who was also planning to perform the uterus transplant had put pressure on Brännström to cancel his trip to Pune, so that the transplant would get delayed or cancelled, and she could be the No.1.
Puntambekar went ahead with the transplant fighting all odds. But the first transplant recipient, 46-year-old Tejaswini had a miscarriage after two months.
Uterus transplant was unheard of in India until a few years ago. The first uterus transplant in the world was done in 2002. Since then, there have been 27 such transplants, with only 11 women going on to have successful deliveries. In India, there are about 4 lakh women with congenital absence of the uterus. The uterus transplant offers hope to women born without a uterus and those with a non-functional uterus.
