Pregnancy struggles are more common than most of us realize. Most of our media portrays it as a straightforward process, and taboos around women’s reproductive health have just exacerbated the problem.
However, approximately 12% of women aged 15-44 in the United States will have difficulty conceiving or safely carrying a pregnancy to term. That’s a huge number of struggling families!
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Thankfully, cultural norms are shifting to allow for more honesty around women’s health.
At the same time, medical science is finding new ways of helping people start families.
Breanna and Aaron Lockwood are a couple who tried a long time to have a baby, and after years of struggle that ultimately left Breanna unable to carry a pregnancy at all, they began to look at surrogacy as an option.
That was when Breanna’s mom, Julie, offered more than once to be their gestational carrier.
Of course, Breanna thought this was insane at first, since Julie is 51 years old and already completed menopause.
Mom was persistent, though, and they decided to at least discuss the possibility with their doctor. Once he’d determined that Julie was serious and healthy enough to carry a baby, he began hormone therapy with her, basically reversing her menopause.
Once she was ready, Aaron and Breanna’s embryos were thawed and implanted.
Nine months later and Julie the “surrograndma” gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, her own grandchild.
Though the circumstances were unusual, the pregnancy itself was “textbook,” and baby Briar Juliette Lockwood came into a world filled with a special kind of love.
Of course, bringing women in their 50s out of menopause to carry a pregnancy is unlikely to ever be the norm.
In an interview with TODAY, Dr. Brian Kaplan, the family’s fertility doctor said, “Normally a gestational carrier should be under 40 years, but in medicine you have to look at an individual and personalize it.”
In this case, after rigorous testing and careful consideration, he decided Julie was up for the challenge.
And he was right!
If you’d like to follow baby Briar’s continuing journey, you can do so on Instagram @ivf.surrogacy.diary .
h/t: TODAY
