By Meghan Holohan – TODAY
A woman who gave birth thanks to a rare womb transplant in 2021 is celebrating a new milestone: she just had her second baby.
Chelsea Jovanovich thought she could never have a baby because her uterus never fully formed due to a congenital condition called MRKH. But an experimental procedure made her dream of having a baby come true.
“The first time I got pregnant it was unreal,” Chelsea told Sheinelle Jones of TODAY. “It was very difficult for me to accept that I was pregnant, so I didn’t enjoy it very much. In the second pregnancy she wasn’t so worried so I was able to enjoy it a little more. Yeah, it was nice to be pregnant again.”
The first time I got pregnant it was unreal.”
Chelsea Jovanovich
Ever since Chelsea was young she wanted to be a mother. When she first found out at age 15 that she couldn’t have a baby, she gave it little thought. As he grew older, he understood what that meant and felt sad.
“It became very difficult to go to the baby showers from my friends, seeing my friends get married and have families of their own,” she said. “She wanted to be a mom since she was little, so it was devastating.”
[Una abuela de 56 años da a luz a la bebé de su hijo y su nuera]
She and her husband, Jake, researched surrogacy but it didn’t work out for them. They almost gave up hope but then Chelsea applied for a uterus transplant from Penn Medicine in Philadelphia.
“My mom saw a story about womb transplants. And she said, ‘you know, there’s hope. You know, you should investigate this. You may be able to have a baby,” Chelsea recalled. “I decided to take a risk and here I am following a dream.”
uterus transplants
After learning that she qualified for the program, she and Jake moved from Montana to the outskirts of Philadelphia to be closer to their doctors.
In February 2020, she underwent a 12-hour uterus transplant surgery with Dr. Kathleen O’Neill, the principal investigator for the uterus transplant program.
“Caring for them has truly been an absolute joy and that’s not to say there haven’t been challenges along the way,” Dr. Kathleen O’Neill told TODAY.
“Here is this woman who thinks she will never have a child and now I look at her with her two children that she had and did well. And she’s just like any other mom right now and Jake’s just like any other dad. I mean, they are a family. That’s really professionally and personally one of the best things I’ve ever done.”
[“Es un caos total. Pero es lo mejor”. Una mujer dio a luz a tres bebés en menos de un año y no son trillizas]
Chelsea needed to take immunosuppressive drugs so that her body would not reject the organ again. She did cause some side effects, including hair loss, tremors, and headaches.
Although uterine transplants are still considered experimental, she said they offer options for women without a uterus or who have uterine problems.
“These women have ovaries, they have eggs, they simply do not have the uterus to gestate the pregnancy,” said Dr. Kathleen O’Neill in 2021. “Once we can give them that womb, most of them get pregnant and have babies.”
Kathleen O’Neill said that after a person gives birth to a second baby, the uterus is removed.
“We want these women to be able to stop taking this immunosuppressive regimen that can have long-term effects,” she said. “With the uterus transplant, when they have finished having children, we remove the uterus. They can stop taking their medicines. And then life goes back to relatively normal for them.”
[Unos padres crían sin saberlo al bebé de otra familia durante meses por un error de la clínica de fecundación in vitro]
Womb transplants are still new, and Kathleen O’Neill estimates that only around 70 have been performed worldwide. His team follows the babies for about two years after birth to learn more about children born from a transplanted womb.
“The limited information we have shows that live birth rates are comparable to what we see in the Fertilization in vitro“, said. “The congenital anomalies are the same.”
This program uses uteruses from living and deceased donors. Chelsea met her donor, Cheryl Urban, and they became friends.
“I couldn’t believe they could do that,” Cheryl said in 2021. “I had two great pregnancies. I have enjoyed the pregnancy. I enjoyed the feel of my own children so I just wanted to be able to give it to someone else. And I’m so glad I did.”
pregnancy after transplant
After six weeks of recovery from transplant surgery, doctors implanted Chelsea with an embryo that failed to thrive. But the second did and she got pregnant. In May 2021 she gave birth to a boy named Telden, who is now one and a half years old.
“It’s been great being a mom. Telden is growing rapidly. I can’t believe how fast it happened,” she said. “He is very naughty. Jump off the couches, run, talk. He has been great”.
Here we are with two children and it is a miracle”
Chelsea Jovanovich
Chelsea wanted another baby and in October 2022 she gave birth to a son, Stetson.
“I wanted to give Telden a brother,” Chelsea said. “Here we are with two children and it is a miracle.”
[Una mamá da a luz a 3 niñas en la misma fecha con 3 años de diferencia]
Kathleen O’Neill agrees that Stetson is something worth celebrating.
“Stetson is the 25th baby born to a woman who underwent a womb transplant in the United States,” said Kathleen O’Neill. “So he is very special.”
However, it took Telden a while to adjust to being a big brother.
“Telden didn’t speak to me for a couple of weeks after I had Stetson,” she said. “I was very insecure about him.”
Chelsea and Jake are moving back to Montana and are looking forward to family reunions and seeing their parents enjoy being grandparents. Even the most mundane maternity chores make Chelsea feel lucky.
“I look in my rear view mirror and there are little feet back there,” she said. “I don’t take all the toys I pick up for granted. At night I’m picking up toys and he said, ‘Thank you, God.’ This is what she wanted and now I can do it.
If you want to read the note in its original version in English, see here.
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