Grandma’s miracle gift
Published: October 3, 2005
A 53-year-old British woman has given birth to her own grandchild.
Annie Casserley, who has four children of her own, became a surrogate mother after a medical condition left her daughter, Emma Hattersley, unable to carry a baby.
Mrs Casserley gave birth by caesarean section to a healthy 3.4kg girl in Birmingham on Thursday.
Carol O’Reilly of Surrogacy UK said the case was very rare.
“Women are usually too old, or not healthy enough, to be surrogate mothers for their own grandchildren,” she said.
Mrs Hattersley, 35, and her husband, Andrew, 34, have named the baby Annie Trinity Hattersley in tribute to her special grandmother.
They chose the name Trinity because three people were involved in her birth.
“This baby has been a miracle from start to finish and it’s all down to my mum,” Mrs Hattersley said. “When surrogacy was suggested to me I didn’t want a stranger to carry the baby, I wanted someone I trusted.”
Mr Hattersley said Annie’s birth was the best day of his life.
“Emma and I discussed surrogacy and initially I had my reservations, but when I came to understand that it was our baby and Emma’s mum would just be looking after it, I was all for it,” he said.
Mrs Hattersley was diagnosed with an extremely rare cancer-like condition, Histiocytosis X, when she was 19.
The disease attacks the lungs, causing them to collapse, and means she is unable to do anything that puts too much strain on them such as having a general anaesthetic or flying.
But Mrs Hattersley remained determined to have a child and asked her mother for help.
Mrs Casserley was referred to doctors at the Good Hope NHS Hospital, Birmingham, who assessed her fitness and decided, despite her age, that she was healthy enough to go through with the pregnancy.
In January doctors harvested Mrs Hattersley’s eggs and fertilised them with Mr Hattersley’s sperm before they were implanted into Mrs Casserley.
Obstetrician Mike Moloney said it was the first time he had seen a relative or mother be a surrogate.
“It was unique and a step into the unknown. There is an 18-year gap between the mother and daughter, and because of Annie’s age, there were concerns,” he said.
“When we weighed everything up we came to the conclusion that Annie had a good healthy background, and didn’t smoke, so we thought it was a good idea.
“Mothers often help their children with new babies by baby-sitting but there’s not many grandmothers who babysit before the child is born.”
The world’s oldest surrogate mother is believed to be Vivien Morris, who aged 54 in January 2001 gave birth to her own granddaughter in London.
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