Utah woman, Julia Navarro, to deliver her granddaughter as a surrogate for Lorena McKinnon, her daughter
A Utah woman will be giving birth to her granddaughter in a few short weeks.
Julia Navarro, age 58, agreed to serve as a surrogate for her daughter and son-in-law after they struggled with fertility issues and failed to secure a surrogate.
The woman says to the Salt Lake Tribune that she thanks God for the chance to do this and insists on giving to others
“I was praying, ‘If this baby works, I am going to help others. I would like to donate some of the money from my baby shower [Jan. 12] to children in Peru who don’t have parents or moms or dads who need help.”
Her daughter, Lorena McKinnon, age 32, says she got pregnant easily but suffered miscarriage after miscarriage. Most of her pregnancies lasted six to seven weeks; one went 10 weeks.
McKinnon tells the Tribune that she might have been with child a dozen times. Doctors were mystified, she says, by the failures.
After failed attempts to secure a surrogate, her mom said ‘Why not use me?’
McKinnon estimates that the total cost typically reaches $60,000, but her mother carrying the child for free has saved them around $30,000.
The future grandmother’s health is of concern so she underwent a full physical, paying special attention to the condition of her heart and reproductive organs.
Navarro, a nurse’s aide at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, was deemed fit, but she had been menopausal for about 12 years so had to give herself hormone shots every day for three months before she could be ready for implantation.
The baby is due in early February.
Image/James Gathany
