I fell pregnant after husband had a vasectomy

Accused by her own husband of having an affair, Sharon Legg will never forget the stress of falling pregnant after he had a vasectomy.

And amazingly, the mother-of-five went through the shock a second time – falling pregnant again last year to have her second baby since his procedure. But while vasectomies aren’t foolproof, Sharon’s husband Andy had his tested five times and each test revealed it had worked.

‘Both Zeb and Theodore are miracles,’ Sharon says as she cradles four-month-old Theodore. ‘They just had to find a way to enter the world.’

But it hasn’t always been smiles for Sharon, 37, and Andy, 38, who live in Secret Harbour, WA. After the childhood sweethearts married in their early 20s, they had three children together – Aaron, now 17, Harley, 16, and Cherry, 12. The young couple then decided they had completed their family and Andy had a vasectomy, aged just 25.

Life was perfect until Sharon fell pregnant in 2001 – then their world crashed down. ‘I phoned Andy in tears when I did the test. I was so confused. How could this have happened?’ Sharon says.

Although stunned, the couple thought the vasectomy hadn’t worked. Andy did a fertility test to check if he was sterile, and a week later phoned to get the results. ‘I couldn’t believe it when he told me the procedure had worked and that he was shooting blanks,’ Sharon recalls. ‘While he was in a state of shock, I could feel the anger bubbling up inside of me.’
Andy returned for another test, and another. In fact, it wasn’t until the fifth test showed that he was sterile that he started to grow suspicious. ‘Andy asked his doctor how this could have happened and his doctor replied: “Ask your wife,”’ Sharon says.

Andy confronted her when he got home. ‘He said that if this baby wasn’t his that he would throw me and the baby out,’ she says. ‘I couldn’t even blame him for his anger. It had taken five tests before he doubted me.’

As neighbours and relatives started gossiping, Sharon was left proclaiming her innocence. She wrote furious letters to hospitals and doctors and even tried to sue them. ‘I was worried myself about what this child was. I knew I hadn’t played away but if doctors were telling me my husband wasn’t the father then what was it? An alien or the Second Coming?’

Zebedee, meaning ‘God’s Gift’, was born on July 16, 2002, with Andy there to help. The hospital paid for a DNA test and the results were mailed a week later. ‘Even though I knew the baby wasn’t anyone else’s, I still held my breath,’ Sharon says. It confirmed Andy was Zeb’s dad with 99.9 per cent accuracy – the best result possible.

‘It was a relief to have it in writing,’ Sharon says. ‘I think Andy believed me by that time because he’d seen the fight I started with the hospital, but it was good to show him definitely.’

Sharon decided to undergo sterilisation shortly after. But a year later, stomach pains meant the clips were removed from
her fallopian tubes. ‘Doctors told me that my husband was sterile and my fallopian tubes were damaged from my sterilisation. There was no chance I was going to fall pregnant,’ she says.

But they were wrong. In January last year Sharon missed her period. ‘I knew straight away that I was pregnant. It was like history was repeating itself.’

Tests showed Andy’s vasectomy had reversed, and Theodore was born on October 7, 2011, weighing just 2980g. ‘He’s our second miracle,’ Sharon says. ‘Most families don’t even get one!’

But while the family feels blessed to have the two extra additions, they hope there won’t be any more surprises in the future. That’s why Andy has had another vasectomy – and he hopes, this time, it works!

By Lisa Harmer
Photos: Frances Andrijich