The 52-year-old who was her own daughter's surrogate says she experienced postpartum depression after giving birth to her granddaughter

People were amazed at the power of medicine, touched by the strength of a mother's love, and overjoyed for Breanna Lockwood, who welcomed her daughter home after years of fertility struggles.

But Lockwood believes in sharing everything when it comes to their experience, even the lows. That's why she recently wrote about surrogacy postpartum depression in a candid Instagram post.

Lockwood and Loving spoke to Insider about their experience after baby Briar's birth, how they got through the postpartum depression together, and why they think it's such an important topic to talk about.

When Loving and Lockwood spoke to Insider shortly after the birth, they said Loving's last trimester had been a time of "pure excitement."

"Everything was one day closer, one step closer to baby getting here," Lockwood said. "Mom was feeling pretty great all through the pregnancy, so we really got to enjoy everything thoroughly."

"It felt like the night before Christmas every day," she added. "We were waiting for the big moment."

"It was really similar, it was a pretty easy pregnancy," Loving told Insider. "I was just a little fatigued and had some nausea in the first trimester, but I also had that with my kids."

"My mom was progressing really well, she was dilating pretty quickly," Lockwood said. "And then after they broke her water, she started to progress even quicker. At one point, each contraction was putting stress on Briar's umbilical cord, which was making her heart rate drop suddenly."

"We were all getting nervous when we were watching those numbers go up and down," Lockwood added. "The doctors were starting to get a little uncomfortable with it and decided to take her in for a C-section."

Loving had never had a C-section before, but she was ready when her doctors made the call.

"I just wanted Briar to be OK and safe," she said. "I was like, 'Go, let's do this.'"

"I think the birth was a little traumatic," Loving told Insider. "I was not mentally prepared for a C-section, when maybe I should have put more thought into it. Because it can easily go that way."

"I just really wanted to make sure the baby was healthy and OK, whatever that took," she added. "My biggest excitement was that I really wanted to see Breanna and those first moments when she got her baby girl, and I missed out on that a little bit."

Lockwood said that her mother "didn't want to talk about the birth experience for a while."

"My mom had such high excitement for the delivery," she continued. "So when things don't go exactly as envisioned, on top of hormones, it made her really sad to think about."

The symptoms often got worse at night, leaving the new grandmother in tears.

"I never experienced it with my own pregnancies years ago," Loving said. "I just started to feel feelings of anxiety or fears that I hadn't ever felt previously. Nothing related to the baby. Mostly just my own recovery maybe."

"I can't explain exactly what brought on the anxiety," she added. "I also experienced a lot of nausea, and I think that also gave me more fear that I would get sick and be in a lot of pain from my incision."

"I was menopausal and I didn't really prepare for that big of a hormone drop after," Loving said. "You mostly just prepare for the birth and the baby! You don't think about the after-effects."

"I was a new mom learning and caring for this new life, and it was so hard watching my mom struggle," she said. "Luckily my dad has always been there for us every step of the way. He jumped right in and whatever she needed he was there. I did come over often, but at most times she wasn't feeling up for company."

"I found some natural ways to cope," Loving added. "I know some people require medication, and I think it's so important to get help and ask for it if you need to. Mine was early-onset and over fairly quickly, fortunately."

"I think people ultimately think surrogacy postpartum is sadness because they don't get the baby. But that couldn't be further from the case," she wrote in the post. "We were so happy, she was so happy to have this precious little life here with us. We were so thankful. I am so proud of my mom. I still look at her in awe. But it wasn't all just smooth sailing."

Lockwood told Insider that she doesn't believe surrogacy postpartum depression is talked about enough.

"I couldn't just go on and not share our experience and pretend everything was perfect and smooth," she said. "Because with postpartum and motherhood, it's often not — just like infertility. I think the more people open up and are honest about their experiences, the more people can connect and not feel so alone going through situations."

Lockwood and her husband Aaron began trying for a baby shortly after they tied the knot in 2016. But the high-school sweethearts, who live in Chicago, discovered that getting pregnant was going to be much harder than they had expected.

"You think it's just going to happen right away," Lockwood first told Insider in July. "When it wasn't happening after a couple of months, I started to get concerned."

Lockwood began seeing Dr. Brian Kaplan, a fertility specialist at Fertility Centers of Illinois. She would ultimately go through 476 IVF injections, seven surgical procedures, two miscarriages, and one ectopic pregnancy.

"I thought she was crazy," Lockwood said. "I didn't think it was even possible. I just read it and put my phone away. I didn't want to get my hopes up and get my heart set on something."

But Loving was persistent.

"I really felt like I had a good shot," she said. "And I also want to be a grandma as bad as Breanna wants to be a mom. So it was really easy for me to want to do this."

Loving was cleared by her primary care physician and OB-GYN, as well as a psychologist and maternal-fetal medicine specialist. She also passed numerous tests and panels of blood work before Kaplan gave the official approval and performed the embryo transfer in February.

"Even with the scares and tough times, I would do it 100 times over again," she said. "Briar brings me so much joy, and my favorite thing ever is watching Breanna get to be a mom! And I love being a grandma. It's even better than when you raise your own children — plus I get full nights sleep!"

"It really made me feel good to be able to give my daughter this gift of life for her and her husband to complete their family," she added. "It's just indescribable. I do think surrogates are like angels to be able to do that for someone else."

"To give up her whole life and hit pause on all of her favorite things to do this for us, it was such a selfless thing," Lockwood said. "It really showed me, I want to become the same kind of mom that she is to me."