Jeff Hauck was moved when his mother, 56-year-old Nancy Hauck, first offered to serve as a surrogate for him and his wife Cambria, who were left with few options for expanding their family following her hysterectomy.
Though he didn’t initially think the moving gesture was a possibility, his mother gave birth to Jeff and Cambria’s daughter Hannah, their fifth child, on Wednesday afternoon, the Utah family said.
“How many people get to watch their mom give birth?” says Jeff, 33, who calls the experience “a beautiful moment.”
“It’s really special that it gets to be my daughter,” adds the web developer.
While the idea of being in the delivery room while your mom gives birth might sound awkward, Jeff says, “I don’t really see it that way.”
Nancy, who was in labour for about nine hours, says “it was a remarkable and spiritual experience” to share as a family.
“Everything went perfectly and we are feeling so blessed to have her in our family,” she shares. Now, as she continues to recover, she’s also “facing new emotions of having a baby, but not bringing the baby home with me afterwards.”
She adds, “It is a mix of deep gratitude and some sadness from the separation.”
As for the decision to name their baby Hannah, the St. George couple says it’s the perfect tribute to her grandma.
“Six days after the transfer, when she got the positive pregnancy test,” Jeff says, his mother was “woken up in the middle of the night, and she heard a little voice that said, ‘My name is Hannah.’ “
Nancy, an associate provost at Utah Tech University, calls it a “really special and spiritual experience” where she became confident the baby would be a girl, even without testing. It didn’t take long before the couple was convinced too.
Looking up the moniker, they discovered that “the name Nancy comes from Hannah,” explains Cambria, 30. “They both mean grace.”
“I knew instantly that that was her name,” adds the new mom of five, a social media influencer and nonprofit dance studio co-owner.