Doctors have performed the first organ transplant on a newborn baby in Britain.

The donor was a girl who was delivered by an emergency caesarean at Hammersmith Hospital in west London.

Her brain had been starved of oxygen during pregnancy and she died six days later. She weighed 6lbs 8oz.

When it became clear she was not going to survive, her parents gave consent for her kidneys and liver cells being used for the benefit of two other patients.

News of the operation has been revealed in an article in the Archives of Diseases in Childhood.

The authors, neonatal specialists Gaurav Atreja and Sunit Godambe, said they hoped more transplants using the organs of newly-born children would follow.

"This case has set a milestone in the care of newborns in the UK," they wrote.

"We hope that neonatal units across the UK will actively start thinking about this noble cause, which makes the grieving family’s journey easier and has the potential to transform another life."

Other research published in the journal last year said small babies in need of organ donations have "the odds stacked against them" because of current British guidelines.

Guidance by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges restricts UK medics from diagnosing brain stem death in children who die before they are two months old, researchers said.

Because of this, a UK baby in need of a life-saving heart donation has to wait until one can be flown in from elsewhere.

The limitation does not apply to the rest of Europe, the US and Australia where infant transplants - though rare - are more common.

The Royal College of Paediatrics is expected to publish new guidelines on diagnosing death in babies between 37 weeks and two months following the UK transplant.