IVF Mother Learns Baby isn’t Hers

Carolyn Savage spent 10 years trying to get pregnant with her 4th child before finally turning to IVF. The mother of three was elated to find she was pregnant until her doctor delivered major news – the baby wasn’t hers.

The mix-up was discovered two months into the pregnancy, as the wrong embryos were implanted in the new mother’s womb. Carolyn and husband, Sean, heroically decided not to terminate the pregnancy but rather chose the painful process of giving up the baby upon delivery.

“It has been hard, we have been rooting for the baby the whole time,” says Carolyn, adding, “I think we moved from a position of shock to a realization that this was going to happen…it has been difficult, but we feel that we have made the right decisions on how to handle it.”

The Ohio mother revealed that the hardest part is yet to come: when she lets go of the new baby she carried for 9 mos.
”We can’t control what happens inside the delivery room, nature takes its course but it is a C-section. We have tried to visualize it and we have worked with a mental health professional since we have learned of this situation and he has helped us move to, boy, in the beginning we were really scared of that moment, and it is still scary.”

Sean was the one who received the news from the doctor first. He then had to tell his unbelieving wife.  “I was upstairs in the bedroom and he came through the door and said ‘I have really bad news’ and I kind of sat up and he said: “You are pregnant but they transferred the wrong embryos,” recalls Carolyn.

“I was actually yelling at him: ‘You are joking, you are joking’ and he kept shaking his head,” she adds.

Due to the medical nature of Carolyn’s condition, the opportunity for another pregnancy is no longer there, so the couple decided to look into the option of a surrogate mother. Recognizing their last option, they ultimately decided to sign a contract and use their last 5 embryos.

“We are trying to mentally frame it in a positive way and look at is as a gift for this family that 8 months ago we did not know, admits Carolyn, “I think that is the only way we will get through it.”