Julie Loving, 51, had given birth to her two children, but when her daughter wasn't able to conceive, she stepped In to help.
An Illinois 51-year-old grandmother has given birth to her own granddaughter after offering to be her daughter's surrogate. Julie Loving delivered a baby girl named Briar in an Illinois hospital on Nov. 2, as her daughter Breanna Lockwood, stood by her side.
Breanna Lockwood and her husband, Aaron, are the baby girl’s biological parents. After seeing a fertility specialist, trying to conceive on her own through IVF for nearly two years and suffering miscarriages, Lockwood, 29, and Aaron began to consider surrogacy.
"Struggling with infertility was the hardest thing I've ever had to go through," Lockwood told “Good Morning America” 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.”
Because securing a gestational carrier can cost upward of $100,000, Lockwood’s mom offered to carry her grandchild. Loving told "Good Morning America" that she had two “easy” pregnancies with her two children, Lockwood and a 27-year-old son, and felt it could work out. Loving became pregnant after the couple’s first embryo transfer in March.
Lockwood said she and Aaron were fearful of getting excited because they had experienced so many losses, but halfway through the pregnancy, they began to plan for their new baby. Lockwood took a break from her job as a dental hygienist during the pregnancy.
On Nov. 2, Loving had baby Briar through a C-Section because of a problem with the umbilical cord. She had delivered her own two children naturally.
Lockwood told the "Good Morning America" that she already has regular visits planned for her mom to see Briar often and predicts they will have a special bond.
"It was definitely a surreal process," Lockwood said 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.”
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