A 50-year-old mother in Utah gave her daughter the ultimate gift of life — twice.
When Chalise Smith’s daughter, Kaitlyn Munoz, 25, struggled with infertility issues, the already mother of eight became her daughter’s surrogate.
Doctors advised Munoz to never give birth again after she was diagnosed with endometriosis and, later, Sjögren’s syndrome.
Munoz, who lives in El Paso, Texas, had a son of on her own in 2019. With two embryos left from her previous IVF cycle, she turned to Smith’s generosity.
“[I was] going to be 50 … I have a bad right leg, [and] just with pregnancies, the sciatic nerve gets pinched off,” her mother told Fox 13 about her initial fears of carrying the baby. “And to be 100% honest, it was one of the easiest pregnancies.”
“There were many during the pregnancy who tell me how hard it was going to be to hand the baby over after I carried her for nine months, but that wasn’t the case,” Smith recalled to KSL.
“I knew from the beginning that this wasn’t my baby,” she continued. “This was a gift for my daughter that she couldn’t do for herself. I would do anything for any of my children.”
And that she did. Alayna Kait-Chalise Munoz, a 7-pound, 13-ounce girl, was born at a hospital in Utah on May 17. Smith’s husband, Munoz and her son-in-law were all present in the delivery room.
Shortly after the birth, both women shared the experience on Instagram.
“I am at a loss of words,” Munoz captioned her black-and-white photos. “My mom is a living angel and brought us another blessing earth side and we are in LOVE.”
“Never did I think I would experience something like this or have a baby at 50!” Smith wrote in her post, crediting her faith for delivering her healthy grandchild.
Munoz lauded her mother for doing even more for her than she already had done from her childhood into adulthood.
“My mom and I have always had a close relationship; she is my best friend,” Munoz told KLS. “My mom did a lot of things for me, growing up that I couldn’t do for myself, and 25 years later she did something I couldn’t do for myself again.
“She brought me the greatest gift: Alayna.”
