通过子宫移植创造出来的小生命(1)

It was one morning last November when Jennifer Gobrecht arrived at Philadelphia's Penn Medicine hospital at the University of Pennsylvania for what the 33-year-old events planner assumed would be a routine checkup with her OB-GYN.

Eight months pregnant, the first-time mother had had no complications up to that point, but tests that day showed that her blood pressure was high-

and by the next afternoon she was in an operating room being prepped for a Cesarean. Minutes later, clutching her husband Drew's hand as Nirvana played in the background,

Jennifer delivered a healthy baby boy they named Benjamin Thomas Gobrecht. "We have such a crazy journey to parenthood," says Jennifer.

"Yet somehow we've been blessed with the most angelic little miracle." It was a blessing Jennifer thought might never come her way.

Because of a rare condition called Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser syndrome (MRKH), Jennifer had been born without a uterus. But thanks to groundbreaking new science,

she's now one of eight women in the U. S. who have given birth following a uterus transplant. (The first was in Sweden in 2014. ) "Having a family has always been a dream of mine," says Jennifer,

who underwent the 10-hour uterus transplant procedure in fall 2018, as part of a research trial at Penn Medicine. Six months later doctors successfully implanted an embryo the couple had created through IVF.

"The vast majority of people with MRKH aren't going to have a uterus transplant," says Dr. Kathleen O'Neill, medical director of the program at Penn Medicine. "But knowing that it's possible and understanding the option is beneficial to the entire community."

Jennifer still remembers that "very difficult day" in 2004 when she was told she would never be able to carry a child. The high school junior in Drexel Hill, Pa. , had gone to the doctor-who was concerned because she hadn't yet started menstruating.