53-year-old Woman Gives Birth to Her Own Grandchildren, Again

A 53-year-old woman gave birth to her own twin grandchildren after a successful nine months as a gestational carrier for her daughter, who is medically unable to carry children to term.

MedicalDaily reported that Ashley Larkin was in the room when her twin daughters were born, but that it was Larkin's own mother, Susie Kozisek, who gave birth to the twins.

Because of Larkin's pulmonary hypertension she is unable to get pregnant without endangering her life or the life of her unborn child, so she had to consider alternative options in order to have a family.

Women who act as gestational carriers voluntarily have an egg fertilized in vitro with genetic material from another couple implanted in their own uterus.

Oddly enough, this was not the first time Kozisek carried her daughter's eggs to term. She was also the gestational carrier for Larkin's older daughter, who was born in 2011, according to ABC News.

"I heard about the procedure on a talk show and decided to check out the possibility of me doing this for them so they could have kids of their own if they wanted," Kozisek told ABC News.

The age at which Kozisek gave birth to children is almost as striking as the fact that she carried her own grandchildren to term.

"It's usual for a mother to act as a gestational carrier for her own child and she was at the older end of the spectrum for pregnancy," said Dr. Jani Jensen, the doctor who performed the in vitro fertilizations for the family. "But she was a good candidate because she'd carried previous pregnancies successfully and was in excellent health."

Jensen said that for a mother to carry her own daughter's children to term is a "testament to the profound love a mother can have for her child."

"I've always been close with my mom even before this so that hasn't changed and I'm grateful she will have such a special bond with her grandkids," Larkin told ABC News.