A Texas grandmother has given birth to the baby of her daughter after the infertility treatments did not result in a pregnancy. However, there were some embryos left over from the last attempt at in vitro fertilization (IVF), and the couple still wanted to have a child. The woman's mother then volunteered to become the surrogate mother, and give birth to her own grandchild.
28-year-old Plano resident Kelley McKissack and her husband Aaron had gone through three heartbreaking miscarriages. One in six couples has problems with infertility, according to CNN.
McKissack explained that her mother offered to give her the best gift she could receive during her entire life. However, she told her mother she was worried about her health.
McKissack's 53-year-old mother Tracey Grubbs Thompson told her that she wanted to go ahead with the procedure. She had started menopause seven years earlier, so Dr. Joe Leveno started hormone therapy to help her carry a baby once again.
Leveno shared that Thompson complained much less about pain than his average pregnant patients. He referred to her as a "star," according to CBS News.
Thompson explained that being pregnant with Kelley when she was in her 20s was easy. However, in her 50s it was difficult and tiring.
McKissack had ironically asked her mother when she was a teenager if her mother would ever carry her baby for her if necessary. Thompson said that she would, but she never realized that she would be given the chance to keep her promise.
On the key day Thompson gave birth via a C-section to her healthy 6-pound, 11-ounce granddaughter. Baby Kelcey's name was made by blending her mother's and grandmother's names: Tracey and Kelley.
The baby went home from The Medical Center in Plano, Texas, on January 8, Friday.
Modern commercial surrogacy is available due to many medical advances. For example, two U.S. pharmaceutical companies began mass-producing estrogen in the 1930s, and in the 1940s a Harvard Medical School Professor became the first person to fertilize a human ovum outside the womb.
Many other non-scientific matters are involved in modern surrogacy. They include psychological, ethical, social, religious, and legal issues.