Ms Navarro thought her baby-making days were over, but changed her mind after watching her daughter Lorena McKinnon, 32, and her husband Micah suffer through multiple miscarriages.
When other offers of gestational surrogacy fell through, Ms Navarro decided to volunteer her own womb.
“As a family, we have to help each other,” she told reporters.
The laws in Utah, where the family lives, stipulate that to be eligible for surrogacy you must be 21 or older, financially stable and must have already given birth once. There is no law that deems a surrogate too old but doctors did advise that because of Navarro’s age the chance of successfully carrying a child full term would be slim.
However, just a few weeks before the baby girl is due Ms Navarro has said that so far she’s had a smooth pregnancy and can’t wait to meet her first grandchild in February.
While the news of a grandmother giving birth to her own grandchild may seem strange, in the past few years news reports have surfaced about other women carrying their children’s children.
In 2012, a 49-year-old woman in Maine gave birth to her grandson and just last year in Iowa a 53-year-old woman incredibly gave birth to her own twin granddaughters.
While doctors worried about the physical aspects of Navarro’s surrogacy, there were also mental concerns. The McKinnons, as well as Navarro had to undergo months of counselling before doctors agreed to go ahead with the procedure.
“The psychologists wanted to make sure we knew what we were getting into – that we were mentally prepared,” Mrs McKinnon said.
According to the mother and daughter duo, the experience – while unusual – has been good for their relationship bought them closer together.
