Nan, 61, gives birth to her granddaughter after she offered to be surrogate and went through IVF
A NAN has given birth to her own granddaughter after volunteering to carry her son’s child, decades after last giving birth and already having gone through the menopause.
Matthew Eledge, 32, and his husband Elliot Dougherty, 29, first considered using IVF to conceive a child two years ago – and were stunned when Matthew’s mum Cecile offered to be their surrogate.
Despite the 61-year-old last giving birth over three decades before, and having gone through the menopause ten years earlier, she ‘loved being pregnant’ so much that she wanted to do it again.
The trio met with a reproductive endocrinologist in their hometown of Omaha, Nebraska – where Matthew shared his mum’s ‘crazy’ declaration with Dr Carolyn Maud Dougherty.
But the doctor didn’t think it was such an usual idea at all, and called Cecile in for a serious of gruelling tests before deeming her fully capable of carrying a baby full term.
“She has lower blood-pressure than all of us and she’s 61,” Matthew told the Daily Mail. “She’s remarkable. I am so gracious that even as a grown adult she continues to go above and beyond for me.”
In another act of kindness, as Matthew and Elliot started looking for an egg donor – Elliot’s 26-year-old sister Lea Yribe offered the couple her eggs, having just given birth to her second child.
Cecile then had to undergo a series of hormone treatments before several eggs, fertilised by Matthew’s sperm, into Cecile’s uterus – remarkably, she fell pregnant on the first attempt.
Following a difficult nine months, riddled with severe morning sickness and blood pressure spikes, she gave birth this week.
Doctor were stunned when the grandma was able to give birth to baby girl Uma naturally, instead of using the C-section procedure they had anticipated.
Photographer Ariel Panowicz captured the emotional moment Matthew and Elliot glanced down at their daughter for the first time.
Crying inconsolably into one another’s arms and beaming with pride, a resilient Cecile gave birth with her son and his husband looking on.
Matthew continued: “Growing up we would always tease my mum. She let us get away with it. But in the midst of all the joking you can forget what someone is really like at the core of themselves.
“Being in the room [during her labour] was such a visceral moment. All the joking had stopped. She was like a warrior – so strong. I just have such a deep respect for her and the incredible woman she is.”
High school teacher Matthew says Cecile didn’t find to hand Uma over to him, either – referring to the child as her ‘grandbaby’ throughout her pregnancy.
He said: “She said throughout the whole process that she didn’t see Uma as her baby, she saw it as her grandbaby. She was so exhausted after the birth she said she was actually glad to hand her over.
“The whole experience behind it all has been so special. The acts of kindness that went into this all, and all of the support has been truly humbling.
“Uma will now have some incredible female role models to look up to in Lea and my mother. I can’t wait for her to develop an incredibly special bond with them both.”
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