Mom Who Told Her Own Mother She Was Pregnant With Baby Number Four Just 8 Months After Her Husband’s Vasectomy Now Shows Grandma Holding Their Little Surprise

“Last year i told my mom i was pregnant with my 4th baby just 8 months after my husband’s vasectomy…” The line sits over a selfie shot in a parking lot, with bare winter trees overhead, Rheagan Schaefer grinning beside her mother, who is in a pink pullover and holding a toddler on her hip.

@rheaganschaefer posted the 12 second reel on September 29, 2026, with the caption “what a wild ride it’s been” and the tags #babynumber4, #surprisebaby, #surprisepregnancy and #momof4. The second half cuts to a sunny terrace with a lake in the background, where her mother, now in black, cradles a newborn in a green pacifier under a gray and white blanket. The text reads, “anyways, here she is with our little surprise.”

The comments under the reel included people who say it happened to them. One woman wrote that she got pregnant with her own fourth child a year after her husband’s procedure, and that she also had a daughter. Another wrote that the same thing happened to her son and daughter in law. A third said her husband had just had the procedure and this was exactly her fear.

How Often a Vasectomy Fails, According to Urologists and the CDC

The American Urological Association’s 2026 vasectomy guideline puts the risk of pregnancy after vasectomy at approximately 1 in 2,000 for men whose follow up semen test shows no sperm, or only rare nonmoving sperm. That number applies after the test has cleared them, not in the weeks right after surgery.

The guideline describes two ways the procedure can fail. Early on, sperm that are already past the blocked point can still cause a pregnancy, and the AUA says failures are especially likely in the first 3 to 4 weeks after a vasectomy even when the tubes are properly closed. Later, the AUA says most failures are thought to come from recanalization, where the cut ends of the tube find their way back together.

The CDC’s contraceptive effectiveness data, published in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, lists male sterilization at 0.15 percent of women experiencing an unintended pregnancy in the first year of typical use. In the same table, female sterilization is 0.5 percent, the hormonal IUD is 0.2 percent, the copper IUD is 0.8 percent, the pill is 9 percent and the male condom is 18 percent.

What to Do in the Months After a Vasectomy

Keep using another method of birth control. The AUA guideline says another form of contraception is required until a semen test confirms the tubes are blocked. The day of the procedure is not the day you can stop.

Put the follow up test on the calendar before you leave the clinic. The AUA says a post vasectomy semen sample may be submitted as early as 8 weeks after the procedure, and that at least one properly collected sample is needed. Ask the clinic exactly how and where to drop it off.

Get the result in writing and ask what it means. The guideline allows couples to stop other contraception when the sample shows no sperm at all, or when it shows 100,000 or fewer rare nonmoving sperm per milliliter in a fresh sample checked within 2 hours of collection. A sample checked later than that needs to show no sperm. If the result is anything else, ask the urologist what comes next before changing anything at home.

If nonmoving sperm are still showing up after 6 months, the AUA says the options, including repeat testing, continuing contraception or repeating the vasectomy, are decided together with the doctor.