It’s hard to believe it’s even possible to get pregnant in your 60s. But 61-year-old Cecile Eledge has proven us all wrong when she gave birth for the first time in 32 years. And it wasn’t her own baby.
Confused? Let us explain. Cecile’s some Matthew, 32, and his husband, Elliot Dougherty, 29, knew they always wanted to be parents, but weren’t quite sure which direction they’d go in to get there.
“We knew going into this, whether it was adoption or IVF that there was going to be the financial hurdle of being able to do this,” Elliot said.
However, both options are pretty expensive and can pose some complications and risks, so they also began talking about having a surrogate. And after a lot of talk with their families, they came to a wild conclusion that Elliot’s sister Lea would donate the egg to Matthew’s mother, who would carry the baby.
“It kind of came naturally that I said, ‘If you’re taking names, throw my name in the hat. I would do it in a heartbeat if I could,'” Cecile said. “My initial reaction was, ‘Who better to care for their own grandchild than their grandmother?’ I knew I would be vigilant and would do everything in my power to keep the baby safe. I thought it was a no-brainer.”
The decision didn’t come lightly of course. Due to Cecile’s age, everyone sort of thought she was joking in the beginning, not thinking it was actually possible. When Elliot brought it up to his doctor, actually told her “Well my mother keeps offering [to be a surrogate] but I know that’s not an option.”
But the doctor, Carolyn Maud Doherty, surprised everyone when she said it wasn’t a bad idea and was completely possible. They just had to do a few tests and blood work to make sure.
Because Cecile made it a point her whole life to be as healthy as she could be, the test results came back great. “Every doctor I saw said there is no reason you cannot carry a baby to full term and deliver naturally,” she said. “We were never careless about this or did this on a whim.”
And with that, she began to take hormones and estrogen followed by in-vitro. She was able to get pregnant and carry the baby to 37 weeks before giving birth to a healthy baby girl the proud dads named Uma.
“We did everything Matthew and Elliot wished,” Cecile said, like adding certain healthy supplements to her diet.
“My mom had this strange confidence throughout and I’m the person who likes to look at the worst case scenario and Google it all night,” Matthew said. “I’m just so proud of her and proud of my dad for being so supportive.”
Some people wonder what these two will tell their daughter when she grows up, but they have a really beautiful come-back to that query: “Her aunt Lea gave her the seed of life and her grandmother gave her this garden to grow and bloom in this world,” Matthew said. “She’s not going to come into this world with a preconceived idea of what a family has to be. We’ve created a different form of family.”
“As things unfold and Uma realizes that other families look different, mostly I’ll have to explain to her why they look different than her story,” added Elliot. “I feel like she’ll be really proud.”
How amazing is the miracle of life? Can you believe a grandmother gave birth to her own grandchild? What do you think of this story?