A 61-year-old grandmother has given birth to her own granddaughter after volunteering to be a surrogate for her son and his husband.
US woman Cecile Eledge had last given birth more than 30 years ago and was now postmenopausal.
But when her son Matthew Eledge and his husband Elliot Dougherty revealed they wanted to start a family, she quickly volunteered to be their surrogate.
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It was a lengthy process to determine if it was safe for her to carry a child at her age.
After a battery of tests, doctors gave her the clearance to go ahead, and she was put on hormones so that she would begin menstruating again.
"She has lower blood-pressure than all of us [her children] and she's 61," Matthew told the Daily Mail.
"I don't know how to describe her; she's remarkable. I have such a deep respect for her and am so gracious that even as a grown adult she continues to go above and beyond for me."
The egg was donated by Dougherty's sister Lea Yribe and fertilised with Matthew's sperm before being implanted into Cecil's uterus.
After a difficult nine months - including morning sickness, shortness of breath and blood pressure spikes - she gave birth last week.
"Being in that room [during the labor] was such a visceral moment," Matthew told the Daily Mail.
"She was like a warrior - so strong. I just have such a deep respect for her and the incredible woman she is."
Matthew and his partner are now happy parents, although they have to deal with some difficult questions.
"People are confused, which is normal. We got a lot of people being like, 'wait a minute, whose egg? And whose sperm?'" Matthew told the NY Post.
"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."
Newshub.
