51-year-old grandmother gives birth to her own granddaughter, family says

A 51-year-old grandmother from Illinois gave birth to her own granddaughter through surrogacy this month when her daughter couldn’t conceive.

Julie Loving, 51, delivered a baby girl named Briar Juliette Lockwood on Nov. 2 as a gestational carrier for her daughter, Breanna Lockwood, “Good Morning America” reported. Lockwood and her husband Aaron are Briar’s biological parents and asked her mother to be their surrogate after rounds of in vitro fertilization, surgeries and miscarriages.

“It was definitely a surreal process,” Lockwood told GMA. “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.”

Lockwood’s doctor told her that she would have to use a surrogate and her mother volunteered, CBS News reported. Lockwood was initially skeptical but eventually accepted her mother’s offer.

“I just kept telling her no and kept turning her down pretty frequently, only because I didn’t think it was a possibility with my mom’s age, and my mom was actually menopausal,” Lockwood told CBS News. “So, as far as I knew about reproductive science, that didn’t add up, that wouldn’t work.”

Lockwood documented her mother’s pregnancy through Instagram and educated her followers about surrogacy. On Nov. 6, she shared a photo of Briar for the first time.

“My mom was an absolute rock star through a difficult delivery,” Lockwood wrote. “The sacrifices she took to bring this little slice of heaven into our world takes my breath away.”