Mother felt time running out to bear child for her daughter

DANA JOHNSON / VANDERBILT One-day-old Meredith, above, and Pryce Bevins, in photo below, rest in Vanderbilt's neonatal intensive-care unit. Barbara Brennan carried the twins for her daughter, Lynne Bevins.   DANA JOHNSON / VANDERBILT   AP Lynne Bevins reacts to her babies' kicks as she holds a hand on her mother's abdomen the day before they were born. Barbara Brennan was carrying twins for her daughter, who had an emergency hysterectomy after the birth of her son. The twins were born Monday at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

By DORREN KLAUSNITZER Staff Writer

The Tennessean April 28, 2004

'She said ... if we wanted to do it, we had to do it now,' says twins' biological mother

Tiny hands reach up and curl around the mother's finger.

Soft words float down while unfocused eyes gaze up.

''She's perfect. She's so tiny and perfect,'' said Lynne Bevins as she tearfully stroked the head of her 3-pound, 15-ounce baby girl.

And she's loved.

The baby and her twin brother are a testament to love and a mother-child bond that spans three generations in this Tennessee family.

The babies, Meredith Taylor and Pryce Daly, are a gift — a special delivery from their Hendersonville grandmother, who gave birth to them because their mother couldn't.

Barbara Brennan is the first woman to give birth to her own grandchildren at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Other mothers before her have given the ultimate gift to their daughters.

Eighteen months ago, Sharon Dunn of Sturgis, S.D., gave birth to her own twin granddaughters — Shelby Kay Roberts and Kaitlyn Marie Roberts — because her daughter Trisha was born without a uterus.

The two families share a similar story of anguish over wanting children and of love making it happen.

Bevins, 34, of Knoxville could not have any more children after her son was born in a complicated delivery that ended with an emergency C-section six years ago.

A month and a half later, Brennan volunteered to be a surrogate mother for a sibling for baby Parker.

Every so often, she would remind Bevins of the offer. Then last year, she announced that at 52, her biological clock was ticking and it was a limited-time offer.

''She said she was getting too old for it, and if we want to do it, we had to do it now,'' Bevins said.

They did.

She did.

And the babies are proof.

In South Dakota, Dunn offered to carry her daughter's kids the day she told her daughter she would never be able to carry any children of her own.

''The day we told her she was just devastated,'' Dunn recalled.

In typical situations, surrogate mothers are paid to carry children for women who can't. A fertilized egg is implanted into the birth mother to carry. When the child is born, the birth mother hands over the baby to the biological mother and often has no further contact with it.

That often raises eyebrows because of ethical and moral questions, said Ellen Wright Clayton, a medical ethicist at Vanderbilt University.

But in mothers having their daughter's children, Clayton said, she can see no moral issues.

''It's a nice thing for these mothers to do,'' she said.

Clayton said the main issue that may arise is ''confusion about who does what in a family.''

But both the Dunn and Bevins families say that was never an issue with them.

Both sets of twins biologically belong to their parents; fertilized eggs were implanted in the grandmothers to gestate.

Neither grandmother said she wants to be the children's mother, a designation Dunn said should be made at conception.

''She's the mom. I'm the grandmother. The only difference is I had the ability to have them. But biologically, they are hers,'' said Dunn, who likens her surrogacy to baking a cake.

''They gave me all the ingredients; I just cooked them.''

Bevins, who went through counseling with her mother, said they have the same agreement.

The babies have always been Bevins'. Her mother just loved her enough to have them for her.

Yesterday, while Bevins was bonding with her babies, feeding them and being their mom, Brennan was recuperating from delivering them.

It's a complicated relationship for those who have not gone though it — being both grandmother and birth mother at the same time, Dunn said.

But Dunn said she has an easy answer to those who question her.

''A mother is not a mother by carrying a baby under her heart. It's carrying it in her heart that makes her a mom.''