'Carrying her grandchild!': Influencer reveals mum, 51, as surrogate

An influencer has shocked the internet with a startling revelation that her mother will be carrying her baby.

Breanna Lockwood hails from Chicago in the US, and has built up an online following sharing her infertility journey on Facebook and Instagram.

The mum-to-be has chronicled her often painful struggle to fall pregnant online for the past year, and over the weekend delighted followers when she revealed she and her husband, Aaron, are finally expecting, via her mum Julie.

Uploading a striking image of herself and her husband holding the ultrasound and announcement board, while her mum cradled her bump in the background, Breanne gave followers an insight into the process which lead to the grandma carrying her grandchild.

“Made with a lot of love, and a little bit of science,” she wrote alongside the image. “Baby Lockwood will be brought into this world via GESTATIONAL CARRIER, and this little miracle’s carrier is quite a special one – my [mum].”

Breanna described her mum as her ‘biggest supporter’.

“My beautiful mama is carrying her first grandchild, Aaron and my biological child, as a gestational carrier!” she explained.

Julie, 51, becomes gestational carrier for Breanna

A gestational carrier is a woman who carries someone else’s biological child without donating any of her own eggs or DNA.

Julie is 51-years-old and reportedly ‘breezed through’ all the testing to determine her suitability to carry a child at her age.

Breanna says her mum is one of a handful of women doing the same thing for their adult children, meaning the arrangement is certainly unusual but not unheard of.

The choice to have Julie carry the baby came after pushback to the idea, mainly over concerns about her age.

“My mom is 51 years old and went through the ringer of heath tests to see if she could qualify to be my surrogate,” Breanna wrote on Instagram. “Starting this venture I was told "no" by multiple REs as the standard age cut off is 45.”

She says once her doctor met her mum, who at 51 is a keen marathon runner and triathlete, they began to be more open to the idea.

Breanna also detailed her struggle of falling pregnant and maintaining a pregnancy, revealing she had two miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy as well as long and unsuccessful attempts to carry her own IVF baby.

Internet reacts to ‘surrograndmother’

The unusual situation raised a couple of eyebrows online, though the response from others was remarkably positive.

“This is the ultimate gift of a mother’s unconditional love,” one person wrote.

“Beautiful story,” someone else wrote.

“This is the most beautiful thing I’ve seen,” another wrote.

Others admitted they struggled with the concept, though kept things civil.

“I don’t know how I feel about that but congrats,” one person wrote. “If you’re happy, that’s all that matters.”

“That is a trip,” another said of the very unique photo.

Got a story tip or just want to get in touch? Email us at lifestyle.tips@verizonmedia.com.