Mother Carries
Her Daughter's Twins
But Will She
Baby-sit?
March 1, 2003
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After Marie LaPlant
learned her daughter could not bear children, she
offered to carry a baby to term for her, as a
surrogate mom.
Marie LaPlant, left, gave birth to her daughter's
twins.
(ABCNEWS.com)
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But that was more than
a decade ago, and LaPlant did not know that the
favor she promised to her then-adolescent daughter
was eventually going to involve double duty. Last
spring, her daughter Paula Griese, 28, had her eggs
fertilized by her husband Dan's sperm. Doctors
implanted the resulting embryos in LaPlant's uterus.
No one knew if it would work.
It did. La Plant,
45, ended up delivering twins by Caesarean section
37 weeks later. The girl and boy babies, Blaine and
Mercedeez Griese, were born on Nov. 14. Even though
she carried the babies, Grandma doesn't want to be
confused with the real mom, she says.
"I considered
myself a human incubator," LaPlant told Good
Morning America. "I've already raised my kids."
Promise Made After Oprah Episode
Griese was about 14
when she went to the doctor and found out that the
reason she had been missing periods was because she
had been born without a uterus, a very rare
phenomenon. She had a working ovary, which could
produce eggs, but there was no place for a fetus to
develop, so she could not carry children. Still an
adolescent at the time, Griese was nonchalant,
figuring that if she decided she wanted children,
she'd adopt.
But soon after
hearing the news, mother and daughter were watching
an episode of the The Oprah Winfrey Show
focusing on surrogate pregnancy. One of the guests
was a woman who had successfully carried her
daughter's baby to term. LaPlant turned to her
daughter right then, and promised Paula she would
carry a baby for her, if she ever wanted children.
Fourteen years
later, Paula married Dan Griese, who very much
wanted to have a child with Paula. At the time, La
Plant was living in Kansas and the Grieses were
living in Dan's hometown of Dolliver, Iowa. The
Grieses made a long-distance phone call.
"Mom, remember that
promise?" Paula Griese asked. LaPlant did remember,
and she was ready to make good on her word. She
packed her bags and moved close to the small Iowa
town, landing a job in a fishing tackle factory, and
got ready to start the pregnancy.
A 50-50 Chance of Success
What followed was
not easy.
Doctors referred
Griese to a surrogacy program that was offered at
the Mayo Clinic laboratory in Rochester, Minn. The
clinic had done surrogate pregnancies with younger
women, but never with a "grandmother," albeit a
young one. LaPlant was 44 at the time.
But she was
healthy, and both LaPlant and Griese made it through
three or four months of physical and mental testing
before they were accepted into the program.
Doctors told the
mother and daughter that there was just a 50-50
chance the implanted embryos would result in a baby,
and there were also some serious possibilities to
consider. There was a small possibility that LaPlant
could die in her efforts to carry the babies to
term. Griese gave her a mom a chance to back out,
but she was committed.
With the deal
sealed, the Grieses drained their savings, forking
over $30,000 for the procedure, without knowing if
it would work.
Overlooked by a Guardian Angel
There was also a
little bit of dissent in the family about the
surrogacy plan. Paula's "Granny," as she calls her
grandmother, died more than a year ago. When the
testing began at the Mayo Clinic, her grandmother
discouraged the surrogacy plan because she felt it
was morally wrong.
But the grandmother
then talked to her priest, who assured her that if
Griese was unable to bear children, it was all right
for her mom to take her place. After Granny was won
over, she soon had her whole church praying on
behalf of the pregnancy. She predicted that LaPlant
would bear a boy and a girl, and that the boy would
come out first — which is exactly what happened.
"I think Granny was
always there, helping from above," Griese said.
She reminded
LaPlant of that blessing later, when she was told
that one of the twins might not make it. Five weeks
after the fertilized egg transfer to LaPlant, an
ultrasound had shown that both of the eggs had
taken, but the yolk sack on one of the embryos was
very big. Doctors told LaPlant she would probably
lose the embryo with the oversized sack.
But Griese
repeatedly reminded her of Granny's prediction.
Dove Bars and Maternity Clothes
Though LaPlant was
the one carrying the baby, Griese was there for her
along the way. When grandma got one of her frequent
cravings for Dove bars, Griese headed to the store
to buy them.
They shopped for
maternity clothes, side by side, and attended
appointments for sonograms together. They swam
together every day.
Still, it was hard
for Griese not being the one who was pregnant, and
sometimes she would cry over it. A doctor told her
she had "Surrogate Mother Syndrome," which was
normal, and something she could work through. When
friends and family threw a baby shower, both LaPlant
and Griese wore corsages.
Since it had been
20 years since she was pregnant last, LaPlant tired
more easily this time around, and craved ice cream,
but her daughter filled the house with fruits and
vegetables so that she would be healthy. When the
babies were delivered, her impending motherhood felt
real for the first time, Paula Griese said. She was
the one to cut the new twins' umbilical cords.
"Before that it all
felt like a dream," Griese said.
