Obstetrics

Penn Medicine personnel performed a successful live-donor uterus transplant. “How you define success is not if the organ is surviving transplant, like other transplants,” said Nawar Latif. “The outcome we need is to have a healthy baby at the end.”

Kathleen O’Neill of the Perelman School of Medicine spoke about a Penn Medicine uterus transplant trial. “These women have ovaries, they have eggs, they just don’t have the uterus to gestate the pregnancy,” said O’Neill. “So once we are able to give them that uterus, the vast majority get pregnant and have babies.”

Elizabeth Howell of the Perelman School of Medicine co-wrote an op-ed about global maternal mortality rates, which have risen dramatically since the pandemic began. “Reversing the trajectory of maternal mortality requires action on a global scale,” she said.

Elizabeth Howell of the Perelman School of Medicine said that severe maternal morbidity, in which women experience severe complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, impacts more than 50,000 U.S. women each year. “Similar to maternal mortality, Black and brown women have elevated rates of maternal morbidity,” she said.

Veena Graff of the Perelman School of Medicine weighed in on how singing may be able to aid the birth process. “Mechanistically, the act of singing helps with breathing and is a great distraction method, which in turn can relax a woman while experiencing labor pains,” she said.