Cecile Eledge gave birth to her granddaughter, who was conceived with eggs from the sister of her son’s partner

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A 61-year-old woman who served as a surrogate mother for her son and his husband has described her role as a “gift for her son”.

Cecile Eledge thought doctors in her home state of Nebraska would not allow her to carry a baby for the couple because of her age.

But the family rejoiced when Uma Louise Dougherty was born in an old-fashioned delivery two weeks ago at a Nebraska medical centre in Omaha.

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“I wanted to do it as a gift from a mother to her son,” Cecile Eledge said.

Uma’s birth led to the family being inundated with messages on social media – most of them positive but some extremely angry and negative, Matthew Eledge said.

“People from all around the world have been reaching out,” he said. “They want to help in any way that they can.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Cecile Eledge with her son Matthew, right, and Elliott Dougherty a few days before the birth. Photograph: Reuters

The family was trying to ignore the negative reactions – the people who wrongly think that Matthew had sex with his own mother to produce the baby, or who leave homophobic remarks.

Eledge and his husband, Elliott Dougherty, have battled prejudice throughout their relationship, with Eledge losing his job as a teacher at a Catholic school after the pair announced they would be married.

They were concerned that they would be denied permission to adopt a baby in their conservative home state. So they decided to try in-vitro fertilisation with a donated egg and a surrogate to carry the foetus.

Dougherty’s sister, Lea Yribe, offered to donate her eggs for the IVF. The eggs were fertilised with sperm from Eledge, giving Uma genetic material from both sides of the family.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Elliott Dougherty with his sister Lea Yribe, who was the egg donor for his child with Matthew Eledge. Photograph: Reuters

The men told their IVF doctor that Eledge’s mother had offered to be the surrogate – even though she was at that point 59 and had gone through menopause.

“Matt would comically say, ‘Well my mum keeps offering but we know that’s not an option’,” Cecile Eledge said.

But after testing to make sure her body could tolerate the pregnancy, doctors went ahead with implanting the embryo.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Elliott Dougherty and Matthew Eledge look on, along with Matthew’s father Kirk Eledge, after the birth. Photograph: Reuters

Carl Smith, a specialist in maternal and foetal medicine at the hospital, said Cecile was healthy and fit, and looked years younger than her age. Among possible complications for older mothers are gestational diabetes and high blood pressure.

She took oestrogen supplements for the first part of the pregnancy, Smith said, until the placenta holding Uma was able to make hormones of its own.

The politics of helping a gay couple and the unusual choice of a grandmother for a surrogate did not deter the team, Smith said.

“We never gave that a second thought,” Smith said. “She was pregnant and the circumstances of how she got pregnant are between her and her family.”