Photos: Nebraska woman serves as a surrogate for her gay son’s baby

When Cecile Eledge offered to carry a baby for her adult son and his husband, they thought she was kidding - and that her doctors in the family's Nebraska hometown would balk at a 61-year-old woman serving as a surrogate for a gay couple. But two weeks ago the entire family - along with proud doctors - beamed as Uma Louise Dougherty came into the world at the Nebraska Medical Centre in Omaha. Grandmother and baby are both healthy - and Uma was delivered the old-fashioned way. ...read more

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Updated on Apr 08, 2019 12:18 PM IST

Matthew Eledge’s mother Cecile Eledge, who was the surrogate for his child with Elliott Dougherty, during her pregnancy in Omaha, Nebraska. The circumstances of Uma’s birth are a testament to changing social mores as well as the dramatic advances in senior health made by modern medicine and healthy lifestyles.“I wanted to do it as a gift from a mother to her son,” Cecile Eledge said. (Ariel Panowicz / @arielpanowicz / REUTERS)

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Elliott Dougherty, Matthew Eledge, Cecile Eledge and Kirk Eledge just before embryo transfer in Omaha on July 24, 2018. News of Uma’s conception, delivery and birth made headlines across the globe. On social media, the family was inundated with messages - most of them positive but some extremely angry and negative, Matthew Eledge said. (Matthew Eledge / Handout via REUTERS)

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Matthew gives his mother Cecile a hormone treatment shot in Omaha shortly after she underwent embryo transfer. When they set out to start their family, Matthew Eledge and Elliott Dougherty were already aware of the toll that prejudice could take. In 2015, Matthew had lost his job as a teacher at a Catholic school after the pair announced they would be married. (Matthew Eledge / Handout via REUTERS)

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Concerned that they would be denied permission to adopt a baby in their conservative home state, they decided to try in vitro fertilization (IVF) with a donated egg and a surrogate to carry the foetus. To their delight, Dougherty’s sister, Lea Yribe (2nd R), offered her eggs which were fertilized with sperm from Matthew, giving Uma genetic material from both sides of the family. (Ariel Panowicz / @arielpanowicz / REUTERS)

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The men jokingly told their IVF doctor that Matthew’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 mom keeps offering but we know that’s not an option,’” Cecile said. But the doctors, Matthew said, just wanted to know if his mom was healthy - and if she still had her uterus. (Ariel Panowicz / @arielpanowicz / REUTERS)

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Elliott Dougherty and Matthew Eledge look on, along with Matthew's father Kirk , after Matthew's mother Cecile, gave birth to their daughter Uma in Omaha, on March 25, 2019. After testing to make sure that Cecile’s body could tolerate the pregnancy, the embryo that would become Uma was implanted. (Ariel Panowicz / @arielpanowicz / REUTERS)

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Cecile Eledge smiles after giving birth to Uma. Dr. Carl Smith, a specialist in maternal and foetal medicine at the medical centre, 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, and the team watched her health carefully, viewing the pregnancy as high-risk. (Ariel Panowicz / @arielpanowicz / REUTERS)

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Elliott Dougherty and Matthew Eledge look on, after Uma’s birth. Cecile Eledge took estrogen supplements for the first part of the pregnancy, Smith said, until the placenta holding Uma was able to make hormones of its own. (Ariel Panowicz / @arielpanowicz / REUTERS)

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Elliott Dougherty and Matthew Eledge look at their daughter Uma. The politics of helping a gay couple and the unusual choice of a grandmother for a surrogate did not deter the team, Smith said. (Ariel Panowicz / @arielpanowicz / REUTERS)

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Elliott Dougherty and Matthew Eledge’s daughter Uma grasps a finger shortly after arriving into this world. “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.” (Ariel Panowicz / @arielpanowicz / REUTERS)

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Elliott Dougherty and Matthew Eledge look at their daughter Uma. “People from all around the world have been reaching out,” Matthew Eledge said. “They want to help in any way that they can.” The family is 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. (Ariel Panowicz / @arielpanowicz / REUTERS)