US woman, 56, gives birth to her own granddaughter: ‘A spiritual experience’

A Utah grandmother carried and gave birth to her daughter's baby. Photo / @cambriairene

A US woman has become a grandmother for the fifth time in the most unusual of ways.

Nancy Hauck, 56, from Utah, gave birth to her own granddaughter Hannah last week, reports the New York Post.

She offered to be a surrogate for her son Jeff, 33, and his wife Cambria, 30, after a traumatic birth led to her daughter-in-law undergoing a life-saving hysterectomy.

Hauck told People magazine that “everything went perfectly, and we are feeling so blessed to have her in our family”, of her new granddaughter.

She described the nine-hour labour as a “remarkable and spiritual experience”, but also revealed she is feeling “some sadness from the separation” since the birth.

“Even though I know that the baby’s going to my son, I know there’ll be a little bit of that empty feeling,” said the grandmother, who is planning to take a break from work and write a book about her experience.

High school sweethearts Jeff and Cambria always knew they wanted a big family. Jeff told People, “From the time I was a teenager, I knew that if I could only be one thing, I wanted to be a dad.”

The couple struggled to fall pregnant for six years before welcoming two sets of twins, Vera and Ayva, 4, and Diesel and Luca, 13 months, through IVF. But after the birth of their second set of twins, Cambria was advised to undergo a hysterectomy in September 2021, meaning she couldn’t safely carry any more children.

But then Hauck stepped in.

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A post shared by Cambria Hauck (@cambriairene)

She started hormone treatments in January 2022, injecting herself every day for 12 weeks with the help of her husband Jason, 59.

Hauck had a fertilised embryo created by Jeff and Cambria through IVF transferred in February 2022. The transfer was successful, and Hauck became pregnant with her own grandchild.

Baby Hannah’s name is a tribute to her grandmother, the couple say.

Jeff recalled that “six days after the transfer, when she got the positive pregnancy test”, his mother “woke up in the middle of the night, and she heard a little voice that said, ‘My name is Hannah’.”

When Jeff and Cambria looked up the name, they were overjoyed to find out that the names Nancy and Hannah both mean “grace”.

Social media influencer Cambria told People she “knew instantly” that was her daughter’s name.

Hauck and Jason are now adjusting to the idea of being baby Hannah’s grandparents.

Jason told the outlet, “I hope that we won’t treat Hannah any differently.

“But we’ll always have that connection — that Nancy carried her for nine months. Just the magic of the whole experience will always be unique in our eyes.”

Hauck said she wants all of her grandchildren to know they’re equally loved.

“And I would’ve done it for any of them.”