Mother-in-Law Reacts to Pregnancy Reveal Despite Son's Vasectomy

After adopting their daughter, Kennedy, Amber Reynolds and husband Reed felt as though their family was complete. Having one child had always been their dream, so they ruled out having any more—or so they thought.

In September 2022, Reed underwent a vasectomy, but what the couple couldn't have known at the time was that Amber was already in the early stages of a surprise pregnancy. Just a few weeks later, the couple, from Athens, Alabama, were left speechless when they discovered their family was unexpectedly growing.

Keeping it a secret seemed impossible, so when Amber was just six weeks pregnant she told Reed's mom, Renee Wright. She told Newsweek: "We didn't have any special plans of how we would tell them. We were still too much in shock to put much thought into it."

Renee was ecstatic about the news, but she knew the couple weren't trying for a second baby and wanted to make sure they were both equally happy about it before celebrating. Amber said "it was so thoughtful" of her mother-in-law to immediately check on her. The special moment was captured on video, which Amber shared on her TikTok account (@kennedyandme), to the delight of her followers.

The clip has been viewed more than 5.2 million times and gained over 708,200 likes since it was posted on January 9.

Amber said: "My in-laws eat at our favorite local Mexican restaurant every week, and we often go with them. We decided we would go ahead and tell them since I am bad at keeping secrets, and I was afraid they'd catch on to the pregnancy symptoms. I'd just received news the day prior that I got a new job, so when my mother-in-law said congrats, it opened the door to spill the news.

"She knew we were actively trying to prevent a pregnancy by my husband having a vasectomy, so she wanted to make sure we were okay before giving her reaction. I'm sure her reaction would have been different had we been trying to get pregnant."

A vasectomy is a surgical procedure that prevents the release of sperm, offering a permanent birth control option. It's believed that over 500,000 men have a vasectomy in the U.S. every year, according to the Cleveland Clinic, and around 5 percent of married men of a reproductive age have undergone the surgery over time.

Male sterilization has been a safe form of birth control for many years, although it isn't perfect and it can fail to prevent a pregnancy roughly 1 in every 10,000 cases.

But what the elective surgery can't account for is a surprise pregnancy in the days or weeks before, just as the Reynolds family found out. While it was a huge shock for them, when Rush Reynolds was born on April 29, 2023, they couldn't have been happier with their new addition.

Amber told Newsweek: "Although we'd always said we only wanted one child, Rush ended up being the best surprise for our family. A few months after this video, my mother-in-law's father became very sick. He passed four months after I gave birth, he was the greatest man I knew. But Rush was a light during such a dark time for all of us, and exactly what we didn't know we needed."

Since sharing the pregnancy reveal online, Amber has been astounded by the outpouring of positivity and support she received, with over 1,100 comments on the post so far. Many TikTok users have told her that they wished they had a mother-in-law who "was this considerate."

Their loving bond is not lost on Amber, as she told Newsweek that she's "very thankful to have such a great relationship" with her mother-in-law.

Among the thousands of comments, one person responded: "We found out I am pregnant 1 day after my partner's vasectomy. I'm nearly 30 weeks now. Can relate to their shock."

Another TikToker wrote: "WOW just this interaction makes her look so amazing, safe, and supportive. I can tell she's thrilled though!"

While one person commented: "Her facial expressions can't hide nothing."

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