Fertility can be a stressful notion, especially for women as nature only intended them to be fertile for more or less four decades of their life. However, thanks to modern medicine, one grandma has seemingly defied nature and was able to give birth at the age of 61 and to her own granddaughter nonetheless!… Hol’ up a minute…
61-year-old Cecile Eledge from Omaha, Nebraska did something women her age may probably not survive– she gave birth to a healthy baby girl named Uma. Still, that does not make Uma her daughter, but rather, granddaughter. That’s because Cecile only served as a surrogate mother for her son and his partner’s child through In Vitro Fertilization (IVF).
Turns out, Cecile’s son, Matthew Eledge, 32 and his partner, Elliot Dougherty, 29 were a gay couple who wanted their own child. Of course, both being biologically male, their only option of having their own child was through IVF. Hence, Cecile thought that it was a no-brainer, she had to be the surrogate mother of her son’s daughter.
Of course, Cecile was already menopause and could not offer her eggs, so those came from Elliot’s sister, 26-year-old Lea Yribe. Once Cecile underwent and passed several tests including a pap smear, cholesterol test, stress test, an ultrasound, and a mammogram, she was good to go. Matthew’s sperm was used to fertilize Lea Yribe’s eggs and then they were inserted into Cecile’s uterus.
More than seven months later, Cecile gave birth to Uma, her granddaughter, through a natural delivery. Despite the success, Cecile would like to remind everyone that “It’s important for people to note that not every 60-year-old is in good enough health to be a surrogate.” Doctors do agree with her as she was a special case– a surrogate mother usually needs to be young.
Needless to say, her son, Matthew was thankful, “As gay men, we’re so lucky to be having children at a time when people are actually celebratory of our relationship and of us being parents, and also at a time when technology allows us to have this baby, with some of Elliot’s genetic material and some of my genetic material.”
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