Doctors performed the world's first delivery of a baby whose parent underwent a robot-assisted uterus transplant — and it's a boy!
The baby, delivered by C-section on Monday, is just the 15th child in the world to be born after a uterus transplant, Science Daily reports, and the first in a research project at the University of Gothenberg, Sweden, dubbed the "Robot Project." Through this project, scientists are investigating a new method of uterus transplants using robots. This procedure is much less invasive for the donor and is an important step towards making the transplant process safer and more successful.
In this case, the uterus donor was the recipient's mother, who was operated on in the robot-assisted method. However, the traditional open surgery was still performed on the recipient — although the scientists plan to bring robots into the mix with that process as well.
The "Robot Project" has successfully performed six uterus transplants by this robot-assisted method, and is even preparing to perform its first transplant from a deceased donor. So more pregnancies and more babies can be expected in the near future.
Read more about this robot-assisted success story at Science Daily.