Pregnant man gives birth

Thomas Beatie, the transgender man who announced his pregnancy in March, has given birth. Photo / Carolyn Robertson

Thomas Beatie, the man who made headlines around the world when he announced he was pregnant earlier this year, has given birth in an Oregon hospital.

ABC News reported Beatie, 34, had given birth to a healthy baby girl at the St Charles Medical Center.

A source told ABC the baby was "really cute" and that Beatie was resting.

Though he was born female, Beatie underwent a sex change operation a decade ago and became legally male.

Two years ago, he and his wife Nancy - who have been together since Beatie's operation - decided to start a family.

Nancy had previously had a hysterectomy but Beatie was able to conceive as he had opted to retain his female reproductive organs at the time of his sex change operation.

He stopped taking testosterone and began the process of artificial insemination once his menstrual cycle had resumed.

An initial pregnancy almost ended in disaster when Beatie conceived ectopic triplets and had to undergo emergency surgery, but a second attempt was more successful and in March he announced the news in the gay, lesbian and transgender magazine the Advocate.

Initially the announcement was met with scepticism but Beatie appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in April, to explain his situation.

"I see pregnancy as a process and it doesn't define who I am," he told Oprah.

"I feel it's not a male or female desire to have a child. It's a human need. I'm a person and I have the right to have a biological child."