December 11, 2017 

BIG FLATS, NY (WENY) -- One local family in Big Flats is celebrating their new baby, and speaking out about their journey through infertility. 

The miracle baby is all possible after the mothers childhood best friend offered to be the surrogate. He's called a rainbow baby - a baby born after a loss.

"There was a tremendous amount of loss and it was constant and it was overriding during the first part of our marriage and that was something that was very hard to deal with," says Damien Mustico. 

Damien and Catherine Mustico were married in 2012 and wanted to start a family. That dream became increasingly difficult after multiple devastating miscarriages, after three different rounds of In-vetro fertilization (IVF). 

"I had about six miscarriages and the last one was in September of 2016 when I lost twins. So it's been a long and very difficult road," says Catherine. 

Helping the family through these difficult, was Beth Risley, Catherine's best friend since the age of six. 

"We've been through everything together since that time. we went to each other's school dances, Trick-or-Treating every year, Christmas mornings," Beth recalls.  

During one of Catherine and Damien's most trying days, Beth says she suddenly had an idea. 

"She was actually in the car on the way to the hospital for her D and C and I was at home thinking about everything and I was cutting up cauliflower and I literally just had a lightbulb and I was like, 'Why doesn't she just let me do it?!'" Beth says. 

"I was done. And so she said, don't be done. Just let me have them..because we had two embryos left. And so she said don't be done let me have them. I'll take care of them for you," Catherine emotionally recounts. 

Using Catherine's embryos, Beth became pregnant, at first with twins, but one vanished. The very last embryo had a 25% chance. 

On September 26th this year, Beth gave birth to John Louis Mustico, whom the family calls Jack. 

"Every single second of it was worth it and thanks to Beth. Just hearing him, seeing him and holding him, everything is most definitely...everything is fine now," says Damien. 

"To have this Rainbow baby also brings significance to the other ones too. We'll have to tell him about this whole story and how lucky this little boy is to be here, because he almost really wasn't, had it not been for Beth," Catherine adds. 

Catherine is hoping that by sharing her family's story about infertility, it will, at the very least, open up a platform for discussion. 

"I feel like the silence really needs to end. There needs to not be so much shame about it or secrecy about it because all it makes us do is feel so alone," she says. 

*All maternity and birth pictures were provided by Alexis Starling, with Starling Photography, based in Corning.