A 51-year-old woman who served as the gestational carrier for her daughter and son-in-law gave birth to her granddaughter.
Julie Loving, 51, delivered a healthy baby girl in an Illinois hospital on Nov. 2 with her daughter, Breanna Lockwood, by her side.
The newborn, named Briar Juliette Lockwood, is the first child for Lockwood and her husband, Aaron, who are the baby's biological parents.
"It was definitely a surreal process," Lockwood told "Good Morning America" about Briar's birth. "All the feelings came at once, just watching my mom go through everything and all she's done for me and is continuing to do."
"Struggling with infertility was the hardest thing I've ever had to go through," Lockwood told "GMA" earlier this year. "When you have a plan for your life and then something like infertility gets in the way, I felt like I couldn't see what I pictured anymore, that it could be taken away from me."
Lockwood's doctor, Brian Kaplan of Fertility Centers of Illinois, suggested finding a family member or friend to act as her gestational carrier. Going through an agency can cost more than $100,000, according to Kaplan.
"My mom came with me as my support person and she brought up that she wanted to carry," recalled Lockwood. "When [Kaplan] met her I could tell that he was really starting to think about it as a possibility, but he didn't tell us yes right away. There were a lot of hoops we had to jump through to make it possible."
Adding to Lockwood's and Loving's unique story is the fact that Loving's pregnancy was confirmed about one week before the country largely shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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51-year-old woman gives birth to her granddaughter
Julie Loving, the gestational carrier for her daughter, delivered a healthy baby girl.
www.goodmorningamerica.com
Make me pay $100,000 if old