Woman Gives Birth to her Own Grandson
(CBS NEWS) A woman has twice the reason to be happy for becoming a grandma after giving birth to her own grandson, CBS Sacramento reports.
A medical issue prevented Maddie Coleman from carrying her own child and a surrogate was too expensive. That’s where her mom stepped in to help.
Gus Wyatt Coleman came into the world on Oct. 22, and the first person he saw was his grandmother, Megan Barker.
“It was the best thing that I’ve ever done in my life because I did get the real thing for nine months, and what was different about this surrogacy was that Tyler and Maddie were able to come to my house and feel him kick in my tummy. And Maddie would come over and rub my feet toward the end so it was a group effort. And then he was born and to watch them hold and feed him and be the mommy and the daddy. It was the best thing,” Barker told CBSN.
Coleman said that when she held her son for the first time, the experience was “unreal.”
“I know she was pregnant for nine months, but it didn’t seem real until I got to see him and hold him and kiss him,” she said.
For nine months, Barker carried her daughter’s child — an embryo created by her daughter and her son-in-law, Tyler. She had already delivered and raised three children of her own.
When she was 14, Coleman was diagnosed with Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH), a disorder that occurs in females and mainly affects the reproductive system. Her ovaries were at risk of tumors and she couldn’t deliver a baby. A surrogate would be too expensive, approaching six figures. So the 48-year-old future grandmother offered her body to carry little Gus.
Coleman said her husband Tyler was immediately on board with the plan. “I don’t think I could have married anybody better,” she said, “because from the beginning of our relationship he knew we would never be able to physically have a child together and when I threw that wild idea at him, he said, ‘Absolutely. That sounds like a great idea.’ And he was on board 100 percent.”
The family said they are going public with their story to give others hope.
“For me, the MRKH was so devastating and depressing to go through that experience,” Coleman said. “As a woman, one of your biggest gifts is to be able to bear children and for me to not be able to do that was sad in the beginning. And now that I have this as a result of my MRKH, I want women out there, whether it’s MRKH or infertility issues in general, to know that there are other options, whether it’s surrogacy or adoption or IVF. I just want to give people hope that there are options to becoming a mom.”