At just 51 years old, an American Grandmother Julie Loving acted as surrogate for her daughter and son-in-law, Breanna and Aaron Lockwood. She has since given birth to a baby girl, who the parents named Briar Juliette Lockwood.
And now, the loving grandmother (and mum of two herself) has given the gift of life to her own grandchild, via caesarean, on November 2nd. Julie, who had not had a caesarean previously, was induced 10 days before her due date. The labour then resulted in an emergency caesarean due to problems with the umbilical cord.
“It was definitely a surreal process,” Lockwood told Good Morning America. “All the feelings came at once, just watching my mum go through everything and all she’s done for me and is continuing to do.”
“She definitely rocked the pregnancy and the birth rocked her a little bit, but she did a great job. It was a super emotional day with lots of tears and lots of happy times and some scary times but our doctors and team were great.”
Breanna detailed everything she had been through until that point. There were: “1311 days, 476 injections, 64 blood draws, seven surgical procedures, three rounds of harvesting eggs, 19 frozen embryos, eight embryo transfers, one singleton miscarriage, one twin miscarriage and an ectopic pregnancy… and countless tears.”
The post received over 17,000 likes and almost 2000 comments. The story was shared around the world along with the now recognisable images of Breanna and Aaron with a pregnant Julie.
There are risks associated with a woman being a surrogate in her fifties, but that didn’t stop Julie from suggesting the idea after Breanna’s fertility specialist recommended she look into surrogacy.
“I’ve run 19 marathons and done many triathlons,” Julie told GMA earlier this year. “I felt like health-wise I could do it and I had really easy pregnancies with my two kids.”
And she did just that! With the country going into lockdown due to COVID-19, Julie kept her granddaughter safe and healthy until it was time to meet.
In her post from earlier in the year Breanna wrote: “Sharing this adventure with my mum has been the most unique and amazing experience. Surrogacy is truly the most selfless gift. She is the pure example of ‘you would do anything for your kids’, and if I can be even half of the mother she is, I know I’m doing something right.
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