Baby Henry Bryant is asleep, unaware of the hum of activity around him. For his photoshoot with The Weekly, his mother, Kirsty, has dressed him in a smart blue jumpsuit, from which his soft, pudgy legs dangle as he flops in her arms, exhausted. He is just three months of age, but he has already been part of a big adventure; a huge, gamechanging, Australian-first operation that will alter the fate of women who were told they would never carry a baby. His adorably pinchable cheeks are a testament to the courage and determination of his mother and grandmother, and the skill and tenacity of a medical team, led by Associate Professor Rebecca Deans. As Kirsty buzzes around her home on NSW’s Mid North Coast, and her mother, Michelle Hayton, plays with three-year-old Violet, you get the impression there’s nothing these women can’t do.
Kirsty is the first Australian uterus transplant recipient, and Michelle is the first donor. In 2021, Kirsty nearly died giving birth.
She only survived the terrifying ordeal thanks to an emergency hysterectomy, which left her unable to have any more children. She awoke from surgery in a haze of conflicting emotions. She was both relieved and crushed. “It broke my life into before and after,” she says.
Some women lose their uteruses to cancer, or traumatic events. Younger women who are diagnosed with conditions like MRKH (Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser Syndrome, which causes an underdeveloped or absent uterus) learn during their teenage years that they will not be able to carry a
