After years of struggling with infertility, Breanna Lockwood turned to her family for support and not in the way you might expect. Her mother decided to step in and volunteered to be her daughter’s gestational surrogate.
This altruistic act comes after 29-year-old Lockwood struggled through several rounds of in vitro fertilization, surgeries, and miscarriages with no success. According to Good Morning America, when Lockwood found out she would not be able to have a baby on her own, her 51-year-old mom, Julie Loving stepped in.
Her surrogacy journey has been successful and the soon-to-be grandmother plans to be giving birth on Nov. 12.
I just want to to say we are absolutely overwhelmed with the love and kind words we have received! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! Never in a million years did I expect to receive so many touching messages, from all of the world, of women struggling with infertility and loss. 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 1 in 8 couples 7.4 million people Someone you know 𝒮𝑜𝓂𝑒𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝓂𝑒 Don’t be ashamed of your story, it will inspire others.
A post shared by Breanna Lockwood (@ivf.surrogacy.diary) on Jun 12, 2020 at 4:06pm PDT
“I feel like my mom is the closest place to home she can be, rather than my own body,” Lockwood said. “My mom wants to be a grandma just as much as I want to be a mom, so she’s doing everything she can,” the expecting mother told GMA.
This unexpected journey comes after four years of Lockwood and her husband searching to bring a child into the world, after marrying in 2016. Initially, the mother-to-be wanted to have a child right away because her grandfather had a terminal illness and wanted him to experience the joy of a great-grandchild before he died.
After a year of trying to conceive naturally, the couple sought professional help and started seeing fertility specialist, Brian Kaplan of Fertility Centers of Illinois. For the following two years, the duo tried every option under the sun – and, unfortunately, she endured heartbreaking miscarriages, including the loss of twins.
Friday we went to check up on our little baby. Sadly my husband can’t attend many appointments because of the new rules with the virus, but we always try to take pictures and video of everything. We got this awesome picture of our little one in 4D! AND we know the gender!!! Do you think this babe is a sweet little boy or girl!?
A post shared by Breanna Lockwood (@ivf.surrogacy.diary) on Jun 15, 2020 at 11:51am PDT
“Struggling with infertility was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through,” Lockwood told The Washington Post.
“When you have a plan for your life and then something like infertility gets in the way, I felt like I couldn’t see what I pictured anymore, that it could be taken away from me.” After this devastating experience, Lockwood turned surrogacy — and to keep the costs down, the specialist suggested that the couple should turn to a family member or friend to avoid the cost of an agency alternative – which could set the family back $100,000 or more.
Loving shared her experience with convincing her daughter that she was the right person to carry the family into the next generation. “I started to talk to her about it,” Loving said. “She was not on board and thought I was crazy, but I just kept pursuing it,” she explained to GMA. “I’ve run 19 marathons and done many triathlons. I felt like health-wise I could do it and I had really easy pregnancies with my two kids.”
While Lockwood was not initially on-board with the plan, she agreed to have her mother meet with Kaplan to further explore this option. “My mom came with me as my support person and she brought up that she wanted to carry. When he met her I could tell that he was really starting to think about it as a possibility, but he didn’t tell us yes right away. There were a lot of hoops we had to jump through to make it possible,” Lockwood explained.
The ‘hoops’ included the mom and daughter duo seeing a round of specialists including Kaplan, a high-risk obstetrician, her primary care doctor, her OBGYN, a psychologist, and undergoing a round of tests.
And so far the mother-daughter duo has been doing quite well. Kaplan performed the embryo transfer in February, and the pregnancy was confirmed in March — a week before the Coronavirus lockdown. The specialist confirmed that Lockwood and Loving are awaiting the arrival of a daughter and granddaughter, respectively.
“Even when we got the positive pregnancy test result we couldn’t jump for joy yet because we’d had so many losses and so much trauma,” Lockwood shared.
Baby GIRL you are so loved 💕
A post shared by Breanna Lockwood (@ivf.surrogacy.diary) on Jun 23, 2020 at 12:35pm PDT
And they shared the gender reveal announcement with a heartwarming Instagram post writing, “Baby GIRL you are so loved 💕.”
Before you go, click here to see which celebrities have struggled with infertility.
