BERGSHAMRA, Sweden (AP) – Emelie Eriksson has a bond with her son that hardly seems possible: She and her son were born from the same womb.
Eriksson was the first woman to have a baby after receiving a uterus from her mother, in a revolutionary operation that links three generations of their family.
“It’s like science fiction,” Eriksson, 30, told the Associated Press (AP) in an exclusive interview at her home just north of Stockholm.
“This is something that you read in history books and now in the future when you read about this, it’s about me,” she added.
Eriksson’s son Albin is now nearly two. She agreed to share her story with the AP because she hopes other women who need help having a child will be encouraged and inspired by her family’s extraordinary womb transplantation experience.
“I hope this will be a reality for everyone that needs it,” she said.
Her operation was performed by Mats Brannstrom, a Swedish doctor who is the only person in the world to deliver babies – five so far – from women with donated wombs.
Brannstom believes the operation will one day be common, and he is working with doctors elsewhere, including at Harvard Medical School and the Mayo Clinic in the US, to perfect the procedure.