AN ILLINOIS WOMAN has created medical history after being one of the first women on Earth to give birth to her own grandchild.

61-year-old Kristine Casey gave birth to grandson Finnean Lee Connell last Wednesday, by caesarian section – after acting as a surrogate mother for her own daughter, Sara Connell, who was unable to carry a child to term herself.

Medics at the Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago said the pregnancy had gone without a hitch – and that the surgery itself had been uncomplicated.

Sara had been unable to ovulate, and despite infertility treatment, had been unable to carry a pregnancy to full term. Her mother, meanwhile, had had three complication-free pregnancies in the 1970s and 1980s.

Kristine told the Chicago Tribune that she had felt a type of idleness in 2007 after retiring, and had decided “to take some time to think about my life and find something that seemed right for me”.

When the idea for surrogacy came up, the decision was an easy one – despite the fact that she was ten years past the menopause. The only major reservations came from Sara’s husband Bill, who needed assurance that the surrogacy procedure wouldn’t endanger his mother-in-law as well as any potential child.

Doctors were sure, though, that the usage of Sara’s own eggs in the process would ensure there was no ill-effect – provided, of course, that Kristine was willing to take hormones to prepare her uterus for a fourth pregnancy, 30 years after her last one. A successful implantation occurred after just two rounds of IVF treatment.

Sara said he was grateful for her mother’s patience to offer such a “special gift”.

Whether or not she is the first person to give birth to a grandchild, she has already claimed the record for the oldest birth in Illinois history, beating the previous record set in 2006 by a 58-year-old.