A woman has given birth to her brother’s baby after using his partner’s sperm to become pregnant.
27-year-old, Chapelle Cooper, offered to be a surrogate for her brother Scott Stephenson and his partner, Michael Smith, after she learned how expensive and complex adoption and surrogacy were.
Scott and Michael are now proud parents to the ‘most amazing little lady’, Harper Elizabeth Smith, who was born 15 days early last Friday, July 12, while Chapelle, who’s biologically her mother, is an auntie.
The couple paid tribute to Chapelle on Facebook, writing:
At 5:30am this morning we welcomed the most amazing little lady to the world. Delivered by our incredible super human sister in under an hour with absolutely no pain relief. There was literally no time.
We are blown away by the strength, heart and courage of Chapelle and will never be able to truly thank her for bringing us our perfect little bundle.
We love you more than you know! We are all now enjoying lots of cuddles and time together and hopefully, little Harper will get to meet all of her loving family and friends soon
Michael and Scott met five years ago and got engaged in 2016. Michael has always wanted a baby of his own and said that becoming a father is a ‘dream come true’. The pair had apparently started looking into adoption when Chapelle made them her incredible offer, the Daily Mail reports.
Chapelle, who’s a mum already, said she made the decision to help her brother and his partner when she realised how many different obstacles the couple would have to overcome to become parents.
She said:
Scott and Michael were both talking about adoption and we discovered there was so many different obstacles to go through.
Surrogacy was brought up, but there was the issue of trusting someone to do it, and it was very expensive too.
Little Harper Elizabeth will now go and live with her parents in Blackpool but Michael and Scott have said her aunt will be an important fixture in their little girl’s life.
Chapelle herself said: ‘I’m still going to be a big part of her life, I don’t think I could have done it if I’d never seen her again, which made it a lot easier.’
Meanwhile, Michael and Scott have said they intend to be honest with Harper when she’s old enough to understand what a selfless thing Chapelle did for them and tell her the truth about where she came from.
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More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.