A 51-year-old woman has given birth to her granddaughter after serving as surrogate for her daughter and son-in-law.
Julie Loving underwent an emergency C-section to safely deliver Briar Juliette Lockwood, her first grandchild, at a hospital in Illinois on November 2.
Her daughter Breanna Lockwood and her husband Aaron, who are the baby girl's biological parents, were by her side.
Breanna, who has chronicled the couple's struggles with fertility, said: 'My mom was an absolute rockstar through a difficult delivery. The sacrifices she took to bring this little slice of heaven into our world takes my breath away.'
Mom-of-two Julie, who had already been through menopause, said earlier this year that 'health-wise she felt she could do it'. She has completed multiple Boston marathons and is 'super into heath and fitness', her daughter has said.
In the US, surrogacy costs around $100,000, with laws varying between states.
Breanna, from Chicago, and her husband of four years Aron, 28, had been trying to get pregnant since they got married.
The couple have endured seven surgical procedures, three rounds of harvesting eggs and four failed embryo transfers, as well as a single and twin miscarriage and an ectopic pregnancy.
Breanna has shared their painful struggle on her Instagram and Facebook pages over the past year, admitting in a recent post: 'The trials and tribulations of infertility was undoubtedly the hardest venture we have had to face in our lives.'
Then in June she posted a photo of Julie at 17 weeks pregnant, cradling her baby bump while she and Aaron hold up the ultrasound and an announcement board.
She wrote: 'My beautiful mama is carrying her first grandchild, Aaron and my biological child, as a gestational carrier!'
A gestational carrier is a woman who carries someone else's biological child without donating any of her own eggs or DNA.
Sharing pictures of baby Briar online Breanna said: 'Holding my daughter in my arms my heart is bursting.
'The feeling of how I would do absolutely anything needed for this child is radiating through me when I look at her, and reflects back on what my mom did for me. '
