PLANO, Texas | For three years, Kelley McKissack and her husband tried to have a baby. Three times McKissack has miscarried.

McKissack’s mother, Tracey Thompson, has offered to be a surrogate mother and carry an embryo from the Wylie couple’s final stage of in vitro fertilization.

Last week, the 54-year-old gave birth to a healthy baby girl named Kelcey – a combination of Kelley and Tracey – at Plano Medical Center.

The next day, McKissack showed off his rosy-cheeked daughter, all 6 pounds, 9 ounces, with Thompson beaming by his side.

“Say hello to the world! McKissack told Kelcey, putting her little arms in a mint-colored blanket as a camera closed in their hospital room.

Thompson, who lives in rural Nevada, was seven years past menopause when she started her pregnancy, but her health was excellent, doctors said. Medical advances allow older women to be surrogate mothers, under strict supervision.

Although remarkable, Thompson’s pregnancy was not a medical breakthrough. 61-year-old surrogates have given birth to children in Chicago and Japan in recent years. One of the oldest mothers in history is a 70-year-old Indian woman who gave birth to a baby girl in 2008.

“It was a beating,” Thompson told reporters of her surrogacy. “It really was. … I have been pregnant for many years.

Thompson has two grown children. McKissack is 28 and his brother is 30.

The family was protective of Thompson during this pregnancy. Her husband, Ben, was helping her with any lifting. McKissack religiously attended his mother’s medical appointments, treating them like his own.

“I didn’t want to disappoint her,” Thompson said of her daughter. “I was too careful with everything.”

Sometimes strangers looked at him. First to Thompson’s face, then to his stomach.

Her husband jokingly told people that the baby was not his and walked away, leaving Thompson to explain that it was his daughter’s.

“The looks we got were pretty funny,” Thompson said.

Doctors noted that Thompson had undergone a full medical evaluation. Her family also had to sit down with a counselor to check for any emotional issues. Once it was determined that Thompson’s uterine cavity was normal, she began taking hormones to prepare for implantation of a 5-day-old embryo.

“Pregnancy is a heavy burden on a woman,” said Dr Ali Guerami, fertility specialist at McKissack in Frisco. “We have to make sure that their heart can accept it, and then we have to make sure that the patient understands that when they are older, you are much more likely to have surgery like a cesarean.”

In older women, the risk of complications is also higher, Guerami said.

Thompson had a Caesarean on Jan.6 after Kelcey’s heart rate dropped. The baby has had a bowel movement inside the womb.

Becoming a surrogate was not a decision Thompson took lightly.

She and her husband, Ben, talked about it together, along with their family and pastor John Spencer from Lone Star Cowboy Church in Nevada.

The couple are active in the church. Ben Thompson is a church leader. On Sundays, the Thomons and the other members dine together. Domino games often follow in the couple’s house.

They spoke with Spencer about Tracey Thompson’s health and concerns about her age.

But whether surrogacy was part of God’s plan was not up for debate, Spencer said. He knew how difficult the couple’s daughter and son-in-law were to have a baby.

“I have come to understand that we serve a great God. I’m afraid we tend to put it in that little box because it feels safe to us, rather than understanding that God is almighty and uses different channels for his purposes, ”Spencer said in an interview. telephone. “God uses medical channels to heal, or in this case, bring new life. “