Sisters share an unbreakable bond, and that statement couldn’t be any truer for Beth Guadino and Anna Howat.
The two, who have both experienced the heartbreak of miscarriage, will now be forever linked through the birth of Guadino’s first child through surrogacy via Howat.
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It was in May of 2015 when Guadino, now 32, revealed to her sister that she was pregnant with twins. Having endometriosis, a condition that can make becoming pregnant difficult and ultimately caused her pregnancy to be considered high risk, she didn’t allow herself to become too excited. In August 2015, Guadino gave birth to Grace and Savage at just 20 weeks, both of whom passed away within hours.
“We went through similar things together,” said Howat, who had experienced two miscarriages prior to her sister’s and her third in October of 2015. “So I could understand what she was going through and she could understand what I was going through. I think that the whole experience, my miscarriages and her losses, brought us much closer.”
It was the birth of Anna Howat’s now 1-year-old daughter Penelope in 2016 that brought the sister’s new hope, and after hearing that doctors weren’t sure if her sister would be able to become pregnant again, Howat began inquiring about surrogacy.
“I just remember saying: ‘Well, I’ll just carry your baby,’ ” Howat told PEOPLE, recalling the heartbreak and the subsequent successful transfer that took place in May. “It wasn’t even like an offer, and there were no questions. It was just like, obviously I would do that for [her].”
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To celebrate Charlotte Grace, who is to be born in February and to honor the babies that they’ve lost, the two sisters participated in a “rainbow baby” maternity photoshoot.
The photoshoot, organized by photographer JoAnn Marrero, who has also experienced the loss of a child, included hair and makeup for the expectant mothers and prenatal massages.
As for what Guadino and Howat hope for the future, Guadino says that she hopes their childrens’ families “are just as close as we are.”
Photo credit: Twitter / @surrogacylawyer
