Cecile (61) gives birth to her own granddaughter: “It started as joke”
Two American gays who would love to have a child have become proud parents in a very unorthodox way. The 61-year-old mother of one of the men carried the baby for nine months. Cecile Eledge gave birth to her own granddaughter Uma Louise on 25 March.
The interest of the press was massive. “For me, there was no difference from thirty years ago when I gave birth to my own children. I was surprised that there was so much to do”, says the woman in the British breakfast show ‘Good Morning Britain’. For Cecile, the birth “went like a piece of cake”. “I enjoyed my pregnancy. I would do it again soon.”
Her son Matthew and his friend Elliot Dougherty got married in 2015 in Nebraska. They wanted to start a family and chose IVF. “We didn’t really like adoption or foster care.”
“Nurse remained serious”
Elliot’s sister was happy to make her egg cells available, but who would take care of surrogacy? “The subject came up during dinner,” said Matthew. “When my mother applied, we had a good laugh about it.” But that changed during a conversation at the IVF clinic. “I jokingly put that option on the table, but the nurse remained very serious. She wanted to know if Cecile was in good health and still had a womb.”
“Could not return”
After the necessary tests, the light was turned to green. According to the doctors, she even seemed to have the body of a 40-year-old. “At that time, of course, I could not back out.”
At the first attempt, it was immediately prized. “In itself, I didn’t notice much difference with my previous pregnancies. Although I might have had a little more morning sickness. The contractions? I vividly remembered that pain, yes.”
“Most normal thing in the world”
It has been over four months since Cecile gave birth in a natural way. Uma Louise weighed 2.6 kilograms at birth. “I certainly did not expect so much media attention at the time. For me, it was the most normal thing in the world. Wouldn’t every mother do this for her child?”
“One of the nicest moments was when Uma first kicked in my stomach. At that moment I held my other grandchild in my arms. How many grandparents can say that one grandchild already exists while the other is still in their womb?”
“A secret for a long time”
Whether she has received many negative reactions? “We kept our scheme secret for a long time. Not because we were ashamed of it, but because we didn’t know for sure whether it would end well. We walked an unusual path. From the age of forty the risks of giving birth increase enormously, and I was on top of that for another twenty years.”
Matthew felt like Seventh Heaven with his daughter. “When she was born, I was so euphoric that I wanted a billion children. In the meantime, I got off the hook a little bit. One will suffice,” he concludes with a wink..
