Grandma gives birth to own granddaughter
Julie Loving just gave 29-year-old daughter the gift of life for a second time. The 51-year-old delivered her granddaughter as the gestational carrier on November 2.
New mum Breanna Lockwood took to Instagram to share the exciting news along with her daughter’s name - Briar Juliette Lockwood - an ode to her own mother.
“My mom was an absolute rockstar through a difficult delivery,” Lockwood wrote in the post. “The sacrifices she took to bring this little slice of heaven into our world takes my breath away. Holding my daughter in my arms my heart is bursting. The feeling of how I would do absolutely anything needed for this child is radiating through me when I look at her, and reflects back on what my mom did for me.”
Well wishers have flocked to the comments as they congratulated the new mum after following her story since she first posted about it.
“The love between a mother and daughter is unbreakable — can’t wait to see a pic of three generations of STRONG women with you, your mama & baby Briar!” one follower wrote, while others celebrated Briar’s long-awaited arrival via emoji.
The mother-daughter duo spoke to Today Parents last month when Loving was 35 weeks pregnant.
“It’s been a textbook pregnancy,” Loving told Today Parents. “Everything’s been perfect.”
Lockwood, had struggled with infertility for years, experiencing four failed embryo transfers, two miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy. After a dilation and curettage (D&C) procedure left Lockwood with problematic scar tissue in her uterus, she and her husband Aaron turned to the idea of using a gestational carrier.
“Most Americans cannot afford a gestational carrier,” said Lockwood’s fertility specialist, Dr. Brian Kaplan of Fertility Centers of Illinois. “It’s over $100,000.”
Loving offered to be daughter’s surrogate, but Kaplan wasn’t convinced.
“My immediate reaction was, ‘This is not a good thing,’” said Kaplan, who has done more than 20,000 in vitro fertilisation procedures in the span of his 29-year career. “Normally a gestational carrier should be under 40 years, but in medicine you have to look at an individual and personalise it.”
After a series of intense testing, Loving was given the green light.
“Fortunately she got pregnant the very first time with the very first embryo,” Kaplan shared. “I’ve been with Breanna for years with so much trauma and intensity — the resilience was mind-boggling. If she did not have her mom, she wouldn’t have a baby.”
In the second post since baby Briar’s arrival, Lockwood shared she is “Just living in new mama bliss!” and updated followers that her mum is recovering and enjoying her rest.