If you had to read that headline a second time, you're not alone. Making babies is not as straightforward as it once was in this day and age of surrogacy and petri dishes.
According to an article in the Huffington Post, 49-year-old Linda Sirois should know of what she speaks; the Maine grandma gave birth to her own grandson earlier this month.
Sirois, whose daughter has a heart condition which makes carrying a baby unsafe, had her mother stand in as a surrogate. Enter 7-pound, 14-ounce Madden Hebert, who was delivered by C-section as his mom, 25-year-old Angel Hebert, stood by.
"It was all pretty simple as far as I was concerned," Sirois told the Portland Press Herald. "I just saw it as I was babysitting for a few months."
A bit of an understatement. The mechanics involved implanting Hebert's egg, fertilized with her husband's sperm.
According to the article, of all her four pregnancies this one was a breeze, since Sirois suffered no morning sickness or complications. For Hebert, the experience was simply "awesome."
Sirois, though, consistently played down her role, saying "[my womb] was just a room for rent."
Is pregnancy little more than a storage space, or is there more emotional significance attached to carrying your own baby to term? Grandmas out there, would you do this for your daughter or son?
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