Stunning images have captured the moment a 61-year-old grandmother gave birth to her own granddaughter.
Cecile Eledge cradles and plants a kiss on little Uma's head while her son and his husband sob with happiness that their dream of becoming parents has come true.
Months earlier, Matthew Eledge, 32, and Elliot Dougherty, 29, had laughed when Cecile offered to be their surrogate after they revealed they were considering IVF.
But the mum of three assured them she ‘loved being pregnant’, and would ‘do it again in a heartbeat’.
Happy and healthy Uma was born at 6.06am on Monday, March 25 weighing 5lbs 13oz.
Cecile also stunned medics when she gave birth naturally rather than by C-section as anticipated.
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The gran, who went through the menopause 10 years ago, was given the go-ahead by medics to become a surrogate after they confirmed she was in excellent shape.
Elliot’s 26-year-old sister, Lea Yribe, then also offered the couple her eggs.
Cecile, from Nebraska in the US, began hormone treatments before her son's sperm was implanted in several fertilized eggs into Cecil’s uterus.
Remarkably she fell pregnant on the first attempt.
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And after nine months of morning sickness and blood pressure spikes, Cecile gave birth on Monday.
Son Matthew, a teacher, told the Daily Mail: "I don’t know how to describe her; she’s remarkable. I have such a deep respect for her and am so gracious that even as a grown adult she continues to go above and beyond for me."
Photographer Ariel Panowicz captured the emotional moment Matthew and Elliot saw their daughter for the first time.
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Uma can be seen peacefully lying on Cecile wearing a knitted hat and swathed in a white blanket.
The fathers also took it in turns to place Uma on their bare chests to benefit from skin-to-skin contact as gran Cecile had a rest.
Matthew added: "She said throughout the whole process that she didn’t see Uma as her baby, she saw it as her grandbaby.
"In fact she was so exhausted after the pregnancy and birth she said she was actually glad to hand her over before the real hard work began.
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"She said the whole process was 'so worth it' in the end."
Uma is now at her new home and her dads are expecting her to be a "little diva" like them.
Matthew told the New York Post: “Her origin story is that her aunt Lea provided the seed of life, and her mother provided the loving garden for her to bloom.
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“People are confused, which is normal. We got a lot of people being like, ‘wait a minute, whose egg? And whose sperm?'
“As gay men, we’re so lucky to be having children at a time when people are actually celebratory of our relationship and of us being parents, and also at a time when technology allows us to have this baby, with some of Elliot’s genetic material and some of my genetic material.”
