Usually, parents leave the making of grandchildren to their children, only getting involved with decorating the nursery, or choosing baby-grows. However, one mother is now pregnant with her son’s child. This might sound unconventional, or even appalling at first, but the intentions are pure at heart, and not what you may think. She has volunteered her services as a surrogate for her son’s child.
One family in Utah is currently expecting a baby in November through surrogacy. This isn’t your everyday surrogacy though, as 56-year-old Nancy Hauck is currently pregnant with her son’s child. But, the reason is not as hair-raising as you might initially think. Nancy’s son was married to Cambria Hauck and the couple had two sets of twins in the traditional way. After the second set of twins, Cambria had to have an emergency hysterectomy because she was bleeding profusely. The result was that she would never carry a pregnancy again.
The decision was tough for Cambria and Jeff Hauck to make. They were not finished making their family and dreamed of more children. “We ended up not wanting to play with my life,” they told TODAY. “Because they [the doctors] didn’t know (where the blood was coming from) and they couldn’t stop the bleed.”
Nancy Hauck was driven by a “feeling” that they were meant to have on more children. She felt inspired to offer her services as a surrogate for her son and his wife. Nancy teaches science, and her logical mind does not usually make decisions based on feelings. However, she said: “I could just feel this calling to offer to carry for them. I knew I was too old, I knew it wasn’t going to be possible, even though that’s exactly what’s happened. I just felt I needed to tell them I would be willing to do it.”
Nancy told Jeff and Cambria that she was willing to surrogate for them in October 2021. She mentioned that she was aware of her age, even if she has five other successful pregnancies. I’d had five successful pregnancies, but more than 20 years ago,” she told TODAY.
Many women might find this offer unnerving. however, Cambria said that she had the opposite reaction. “We knew that the only way that we could use our embryos was through having someone carry them for us,” she said. “So when Nancy came to us, I know most people would probably be like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s crazy,’ but it didn’t feel like that. There was just so much peace around the whole conversation and around the whole experience.” Cambria added: “I call her my mother-in-love because that’s what she is.”
Naturally, social media has an array of reactions. People have expressed their negativity toward the family, but Cambria said they only care about the opinions of the family. “There’s definitely been trolls,” admitted Cambria. “I’d say the positivity has outweighed the negative, but it really doesn’t matter to me what anyone else thinks. I just always want to live my life in a way that I’m happy with who I am and what I’m doing.”
The soon-to-be-mother of five wishes for their story to inspire other people who have lost hope in becoming parents. “I hope that our story can help someone else that’s going through infertility or just feeling hopeless in starting their family that it can hopefully bring hope in and let them know they’re not alone,” she said.