Baby No.2? I’ll ask Mum
Womb recipient calls on her mother, 53, to help get Luisa a sibling
THEY have already made history – and now the family of miracle baby Luisa Santos could become even more extraordinary.
Luisa is the first in the world to be born after her mother underwent a pioneering womb transplant. Fabiana Amorim de Lima, 34, received the organ from a donor who died.
Now she is hoping for another child – using her own mother, aged 53, as a surrogate.
The donor womb cannot be used again by Ms de Lima because of the risk of rejection. But she and husband Claudio Santos have fertilised eggs left over from the IVF procedure used to conceive Luisa.
They hope to use them to try for a second baby, this time with the help of Ms de Lima’s mother Valdecy Amorim Alves de Miranda, who would give birth to her own grandchild. Mr Santos, 33, said: ‘We’re going to try implantation into my mother-in-law.’
The pioneering womb transplant into Ms de Lima at a hospital in São Paulo, Brazil, involved 11 hours of surgery. Mr Santos’s wife, who received the organ from a 45-year-old donor who died after complications following a stroke, went on to carry Luisa for the full term. Their baby was delivered by caesarean last December, weighing of 5lb 10oz.
Ms de Lima, who was born without a womb, has always wanted more than one child. Mr Santos said: ‘We want a brother or sister for Luisa and, although we can’t do the same way again, we are looking at other options.’ He said his mother-in-law has agreed to attempt to implant one of the fertilised eggs into her womb. news@dailymail.ie