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Woman donates womb to daughter born without womb

A 43-year-old mother has donated her uterus to her 21-year-old daughter born without a womb to experience childbirth.

The first of its kind uterus transparent in India took place in an eight-hour surgery in the city of Pune in southwest India, Thursday.

The surgery was performed by a team of doctors at Pune's Galaxy Care Hospital and lead by the hospital's medical director, Dr. Shailesh Puntambekar. He said the patients were doing well.

"The procedure is difficult because multiple large arteries are to be joined there, and veins that are small and short," said Puntambekar. "It is technically very tough."

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The patient will have to wait a year before trying to become pregnant through in-vitro fertilization (IVF), giving her body enough time to heal and adjust to the new uterus.

According to Dr. Mats Brännström, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Sweden's University of Gothenburg, only six babies have ever been delivered from a uterus transplant -- two from the same mother.

Brännström led the team that first successfully performed the procedure in 2014, when after 11 unsuccessful attempts worldwide by their team and others — a healthy baby was born in Sweden.

All five babies delivered since have been the result of surgeries performed by the Swedish team.

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