Woman Gives Birth To Second Son After Successful Rare Uterus Transplant
Ashley McCann
When Chelsea Jovanovich was 15 years old, she was told that she'd never be able to have a baby, due to a congenital condition she had called MRKH.
MRKH, or Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome, is a disorder that causes the uterus to be underdeveloped or absent.
Photo: YouTube/TODAY
When Jovanovich was young, she didn't quite understand the magnitude of emotional pain this would eventually cause her. As she got older, she grew sad and had a hard time attending friends' baby showers and seeing everyone's families grow but her own.
Although Jovanovich was told she'd never be able to have children of her own, she never lost hope.
Photo: YouTube/TODAY
One day, she heard about a uterus transplant program at Penn Medicine and immediately applied. Much to her surprise, she was accepted.
After she was accepted, she and her husband Jake moved from Montana to closer to Philadelphia so that she could be near her doctors.
Photo: YouTube/TODAY
In February 2020, Jovanovich underwent a successful 12-hour uterus transplant surgery with Dr. Kathleen O’Neill, the lead investigator for the uterus transplant program.
After she was fully recovered, Jovanovich became pregnant with her first son, Telden, who is now a year and a half old.
Recently, she just gave birth to her second son, Stetson.
Photo: YouTube/TODAY
“I look in my rear-view mirror and there’s little feet back there,” Jovanovich told TODAY. “I don’t take for granted all the toys that I pick up. Every little toy, you know at night, I’m picking up toys and I’m like, ‘Thank you, God.’ You know, this is what I wanted. And now, I get to do it.”
She also got to meet the woman who donated her uterus to her and made all of this possible. The two of them are now friends.
Photo: YouTube/TODAY
Uterus transplants are still very new, and only about 70 have been performed worldwide.
“Stetson is the 25th baby born to a woman who had a uterus transplant in the United States,” Dr. O’Neill said. “So (it’s) very special.”
Learn more about this heartwarming and incredible story in the video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNhDq4Tuwt4
