Amy Steinhauser was your average 35-year-old woman. She had a solid career as a police-dispatch crisis intervention counselor, which allowed her to help people and feel fulfilled in her job. She owned a home, and lived her happy life as a perfectly single woman.
Amy knew she didn’t need a man to feel complete, but she did have a burning desire to be a mom.
With her biological clock ticking, Amy’s doctor suggested artificial insemination treatments and in-vitro fertilization.
After getting connected with an online support group called “Single Mothers by Choice,” Amy decided to pursue the treatments.
She started with artificial insemination, which failed several times, and led her to miscarry the one attempt that doctors believed to be successful.
Heartbroken, Amy’s dreams of becoming a mom were crushed. But there were still options. She continued to try getting pregnant—this time, with IVF.
The doctor implanted three embryos, with the hopes that one would be successful. As anyone who’s ever explored the world of IVF knows, it’s more common than not for embryos not to take.
A few weeks later, Amy returned for her follow-up visit to find out if she was pregnant.
To everyone’s surprise all three of the embryos took, and one even split. Amy’s dreams were coming true with each of the FOUR little hearts beating strong right below her heart.
Four Peas And a Mom
Of course, being pregnant came with a laundry list of complications and risks.
Doctors told Amy there was a high risk of death for herself and all four of the babies. Plus, the likelihood of all four making it out alive AND healthy were very slim.
They urged Amy to abort one or two of the babies to lower the risk for all of them, but the mother refused. She said as long and scary as the list of risks was, it “wasn’t enough to match the joy I felt when I heard those heartbeats.”
She kept all four quadruplets.
Complications began at just eight weeks, and became more severe by 12.