PLANO, TEXAS — A 54-year-old woman gave birth to her granddaughter Wednesday afternoon after agreeing to carry the child for her daughter.
Kelley McKissack, 28, and her husband had tried for three years to have a baby of their own then turned to fertilization treatments.
“After numerous failed attempts we moved over to infertility treatment, which did turn into pregnancies but all turned into miscarriages,” Kelley McKissack said.
The couple’s last of three miscarriages happened on Christmas in 2014.
Then McKissack’s mother, Tracey Thompson, offered to carry her daughter’s child as a surrogate.
The couple’s final round of in-vitro fertilization left them with four embryos, and Thompson successfully became pregnant in April.
Thompson — already seven years past menopause — underwent a series of medical treatments, including hormone therapy, to allow her body to carry a baby once again.
“It is such a blessing that I can do this for my daughter,” Thompson said.
Thompson said she accompanied her daughter to all but one of her fertility treatments, and after she became a surrogate her daughter accompanied her to all her appointments.
Thompson gave birth to a 6-pound, 11-ounce girl via cesarean section at 3:02 p.m. Jan. 6 at the Medical Center of Plano. The McKissack’s named the baby Kelcey by combining “Tracey” and “Kelley.”
She said the hormone therapy was at times difficult, and the pregnancy wasn’t easy.
“Oh, it was a beating, it really was,” Thompson said. “The first go-around, my daughter is 28 and my son is 30, so it has been many years since I’ve been pregnant. The second trimester was great, the first and the third were really tough.”
Dr. Ali Guerami, with the Frisco Institute for Reproductive Medicine, said doctors had some reservations, but carefully evaluated everything. Thompson underwent a series of tests to make sure she was healthy enough to handle a pregnancy and delivery.
“We really kind of looked at everything,” said Dr. Joseph Leveno, an OBGYN at The Medical Center of Plano. “It felt like a good move, and I think sometimes feelings and instincts kick in where there’s not any literature or medical research to back up.”
