Surrogate-Born Children Welcomed Days Before Wife Gives Birth: “Seeing my child for the first time was such an emotional experience”

According to a press release from Brookwood Baptist Health, Clay and Meredith “Bo” McCord welcomed their first child, James Wakefield, via surrogate on Mother’s Day, three days before Bo gave birth to their daughter, Mary Clark.

“Seeing my child for the first time was such an emotional experience,” Clay was Clay’s father.

“To do it all again just three days later and welcome our little girl, I just can’t describe the joy.”

People magazine, The Tennessee couple had three miscarriages and had undergone two rounds of in vitro fertilization. They then reached Katie Morse, a friend, in the hopes that she would be their surrogate.

“My wife knew Thomas Morse, Katie’s husband from her college days at Samford. That led us to Katie who we knew had been a surrogate before,” Clay said in the statement.

Katie told the outlet that Bo contacted her during her second surrogacy and that she knew she wanted help expanding her family before Katie even asked.

“God blessed my husband and me immensely when we had our children, and I couldn’t say no to women who wanted to be mothers as badly as I did,” In a statement, she stated.

Bo was shocked to find that she was actually pregnant.  

“With this surrogacy as with my second, the mom got pregnant too,” Katie spoke to the outlet.

“Something about the stress being lifted, I guess.”

According to the outlet, the families were not sure which baby would be the first.

She told the outlet that she was confident she would go into labor slightly ahead of schedule, and on May 7, the McCords traveled to Birmingham, where the surrogate lives, while Katie “prayed” that the couple’s son would arrive in time for Mother’s Day.

She eventually got her to wish, with James arriving on Mother’s Day, May 8. “Everyone in the room was crying,” Katie said of the moment James was born at Brookwood Women’s Center.

“My favorite part of the delivery is always watching the parents’ reaction to seeing their child for the first time but this time I kind of missed that while I was in my own little world,”She added.

“But, everyone told me they were crying and in shock!”

Bo, a mother of two, gave birth to her daughter a few days later, on May 11, in a Tennessee hospital.

“We were all crying in the delivery room because it was such a special moment and just three days later, I delivered our little girl.”