In a medical first, two mothers have carried the same baby: Ashleigh Coulter gave birth to a son both she and her wife Bliss Coulter carried, thanks to a breakthrough method of in vitro fertilization.
The method, called Effortless Reciprocal IVF, allowed Bliss to incubate her own embryo. Then, the embryo was placed inside Ashleigh, where it grew until she delivered: In June, Stetson was born at a healthy 8 pounds, 3 ounces.
“I’m excited to put all this in his baby book!” Ashleigh, 29, tells The Post of the medical breakthrough.
The couple from Texas sought out the treatment because they wanted a way for both of them to be involved in the pregnancy. And simply using a sperm donor would have meant only one of them could have carried the child — then, “the other partner has to adopt a child,” Ashleigh says.
But a friend referred them to Dr Kathy Doody, a fertility specialist from the C.A.R.E Fertility Clinic in Texas, who had done similar work with IVF. Doody had the idea to involve both mothers, which instantly appealed to the Coulters.
“I’ve wanted to be a mother since as long as I could remember,” Ashleigh says. Bliss, 37, adds that the idea of getting pregnant didn’t appeal much to her — until she fell in love with Ashleigh, then learned she could have her own baby without carrying it. Read more