A woman has given birth to a baby from the same womb she was born from, after receiving a uterus from her mother.

Key points: Emelie Eriksson was born without a uterus and underwent pioneering transplant

Emelie Eriksson was born without a uterus and underwent pioneering transplant Baby conceived in first pregnancy attempt

Baby conceived in first pregnancy attempt Doctor hopes the surgery will become commonplace worldwide

Emelie Eriksson, who was born without a womb, received the organ from her mother and nearly two years ago, in a world first, gave birth to son Albin.

"It's like science fiction," the 30-year-old from a town near Stockholm said.

"This is something that you read in history books and now in the future when you read about this, it's about me."

Her operation was performed by pioneering Swedish doctor Mats Brannstrom, who is the only person in the world to deliver babies — five so far — from women with donated wombs.

Ms Eriksson was 15 when she began wondering why she had not got her period and tests later revealed she had been born without a womb and doctors said she would never be able to carry her own children.

In her early 20s, Ms Eriksson began reading about scientists attempting to create organs from stem cells and was told about the womb transplant research being pursued by Dr Brannstrom.

She described the novel project to her mother one Sunday evening.

"I thought this was something that could only happen [far] in the future," Marie Eriksson, 53, said.

"But then I said to Emelie, 'I'm so old, I don't need my womb and I don't want any more children. This is your only chance to have a child and you should take it'."

'Small chance' pregnancy soon after transplant

Daniel Chrysong's fainted in shock after son Albin was born ( AP: Niklas Larsson )

Ms Eriksson emailed Dr Brannstrom and after dozens of medical tests for both Ms Ericksson and her mother, they were accepted into his trial testing the pioneering transplant.

"I'd known all my life that I wouldn't be able to be pregnant," Ms Eriksson said.

"But maybe now there was a small, small chance for me."

Ms Eriksson's husband, Daniel Chrysong, agreed to go ahead after meeting Dr Brannstrom and being reassured he was not "some lunatic doctor", but doubted the transplant would result in a baby.

"I thought [we had] a bigger chance of winning the lottery," he said.

Ms Eriksson had two mild rejection episodes in the months after the surgery, but doses of steroids helped them pass.

After a year, Ms Eriksson was finally ready to attempt to get pregnant and Dr Brannstrom's team transferred a single embryo into her womb, which Ms Eriksson and Mr Chrysong had created during in-vitro fertilisation.

An initial pregnancy test returned a negative result, but another a week later revealed a baby had been conceived.

Ms Eriksson was only convinced they had succeeded when she heard her newborn son scream in the delivery room in 2014.

Mr Chrysong was so overcome that he fainted and had to be watched over by the anesthesiology nurse on the floor of the hospital room.

Ms Eriksson's agreed to share her story because she hopes other women who need help having a child will be encouraged and inspired by her family's extraordinary womb transplantation experience.

"I hope this will be a reality for everyone that needs it," she said.

Australian woman's request led to transplant procedure

Dr Brannstom began researching whether uterus transplants were possible after a young Australian cervical cancer patient asked about them after she was told she had to lose her womb to survive.

He began a series of painstaking research projects to learn whether it might be possible to transplant a womb, despite criticism that the unheard of procedure was dangerous, medically unnecessary and impossible.

After successful uterus transplants in mice in 1999 and tests in rats, sheep, pigs and monkeys, the surgery was first performed on humans in 2012.

No other doctor in the world has succeeded, despite attempts in the US, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and ongoing efforts in China, Britain, France, the Czech Republic and elsewhere.

The first of Dr Brannstom's patients' babies was born in 2014 and the fifth arrived in January; another is due in early 2017.

Other fertility experts thought it was astonishing that wombs of some post-menopausal women were able to grow healthy babies after being transplanted.

Doctors typically expect younger organs to work better, but in the case of womb transplantation, organs from older women appeared "rejuvenated" after being dosed with hormones.

Dr Brannstom said he believed the operation would one day be common, and he is working with doctors elsewhere, including at Harvard Medical School and the Mayo Clinic in the US, to perfect the procedure.

"I think I need to thank him a thousand times more," Ms Eriksson said.

"He's my hero. He made it possible for me to have a child."

AP