Infertility affects around 6% of married women in the US, according to the CDC, but one woman got an unusual helping hand after her 51-year-old mother agreed to carry her own grandchild.
Julie Loving, 51, became her daughter Breanna Lockwood’s gestational carrier after she struggled to fall pregnant and has now been dubbed her "surrograndma."
In an interview with TODAY Parents, Loving said: "It's been a textbook pregnancy. Everything's been perfect."
Gestational carriers are typically expensive to use, and Lockwood's fertility specialist, Dr. Brian Kaplan said: "Most Americans cannot afford a gestational carrier. It's over $100,000."
When Lockwood first spoke to her mother about her fertility problems, she offered to carry a child for her, but she refused.
"I knew she wanted to be helpful, but I just kept kind of saying no," Lockwood said.
Lockwood then took her mother to a fertility appointment with Dr. Kaplan when her husband was unable to attend and told Loving not to mention the possibility of her carrying the child.
However, toward the end of the appointment, Loving told Dr. Kaplan that she wanted to carry a baby for her daughter.
Dr. Kaplan then expressed his concerns about someone of Loving's age carrying a baby, saying that typically a surrogate's health is of the utmost importance in determining their suitability rather than their age.
"Normally a gestational carrier should be under 40 years, but in medicine, you have to look at an individual and personalize it," he said.
The doctor then decided to discuss the possibility of Loving carrying the child with his colleagues.
"We made her go through all these hoops to make sure she was as healthy as possible [and] as educated as possible about the risks involved," he said.
"We took it very seriously. Each of the physicians that saw her agreed this was unique. This is not something we would do regularly or advise people to do. This was absolutely exceptional."
After Loving managed to jump through all of the required hoops, she was approved as a carrier for her daughter's baby.
However, now that Lockwood is sharing her unusual journey with her mother on social media, she has admitted that not everyone has been so understanding.
Lockwood said: "I would say 90% of the responses and feedback I get are fantastic and wonderful, but there are that 10% of internet trolls that have nasty things to say about whatever they can online. I think a lot of it comes from lack of education where they don't understand IVF or what a surrogate is, or they think this baby is my sister."
But despite this, the mom-to-be isn't phased by the trolls, and she is simply excited to welcome her baby girl, and at the time of writing, her "surrograndma" is 35 weeks along.
"I'm so ready. We're so lucky and fortunate that this was able to happen for us. "
