From womb transplants to caesareans: a brave new world of fertility?

Just before Christmas last year, Grace Bell gave birth to her baby son, Hugo, using a womb transplanted from a dead donor. Bell’s joy was a scientific breakthrough – the first successful pregnancy and birth using a donated womb in the UK and only the third in Europe.

But not everyone saw this as happy news. Conservatives, Christian politicians and some gender-critical campaigners were critical of the procedure. They argued that womb transplants signalled a dangerous shift from the natural order, and that meddling with pregnancy and birth is bad for baby and mother. All the while, anti-surrogacy campaigners have come out more strongly against the transplant, arguing that the potential for the commodification of women’s wombs is a slippery slope for women everywhere.

There seems to be growing controversy over the range of changes to fertility and birth. One in four births in England is now done by emergency caesarean, while elective c-sections have risen by eight per cent in the past five years. Some argue that the higher numbers might simply reflect the higher average age of mothers (causing more complicated pregnancies); others see that the constant news about maternity scandals has convinced a generation of women to leave nothing up to chance. However, some see rising numbers of c-sections as a product of the over-medicalisation of birth, an unwarranted intervention into women’s natural capabilities.

Yet there is something interesting and conflicting is going on in the world of baby-making and our attitude towards it. Increasing numbers of women are seeking IVF treatment while fewer young women seem willing to take hormonal contraception. Should we welcome technological advances as mastery over nature to allow women to not only choose when they have children but how? Is a fear of a brave new world of ‘babies in bags’ irrational, or are there ethical conundrums to some of these leaps forward? Is there anything wrong with greater medicalisation of conception, pregnancy and birth? Or does nature know best?