A 'miracle' boy in Alabama has become the first baby in the world to be born from a transplanted womb outside of a clinical trial.

The child was born in May via C-section at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

His mother, Mallory, who prefers to keep her full name anonymous, was born without a uterus, making her infertile and fully diminishing her chances of conceiving a child naturally.

She had her first child, a daughter, via surrogacy through her sister but admitted that not being able to carry her own felt like something in her life was 'lacking.' 

Mallory was accepted into the Uterus Transplant Program at UAB, where she underwent 18 months of IVF, transplantation, pregnancy, and finally birth. 

The procedure, which has only been done about 100 times worldwide in tightly-controlled clinical studies, has risks, including the chance of the fetus being rejected, the fetus being born at a low birth rate, or death of the mother.

A uterus can be taken from a deceased donor who gave permission for their organ to be taken, or a living donor, such as someone who had a hysterectomy, a procedure that removes all female reproductive organs.

Before the transplant, Mallory had to undergo in vitro fertilization (IVF), which involves an egg being removed from a woman's ovaries and fertilized with sperm in a lab. This creates embryos, which are frozen for later use.

Mallory does have ovaries, which allowed her to produce eggs for IVF, making the child biologically hers. 

The surgery, which can take about 10 hours, to implant the uterus involved placing the organ, shaped like an upside-down pear, in the pelvis and connecting blood vessels from the donor uterus to Mallory's blood vessels