In the ‘After’ film series, Josephine Langford’s Tessa Young learns that she cannot get pregnant due to cervical insufficiency or an incompetent cervix. When she goes to a doctor to confirm her condition, she further comes to know that she cannot complete the term of her pregnancy even if she gets pregnant. In ‘After Ever Happy,’ the fourth movie in the film series, Tessa and her boyfriend Hardin Scott discuss the unacceptable reality concerning the former’s ability to become a mother. In ‘After Everything,’ the fifth installment in the series, Tessa’s fate gets rewritten as she raises a daughter with Hardin while waiting for another child!
Tessa does get pregnant in ‘After Everything,’ which ends with Hardin kissing his partner’s belly as they wait for another child with their daughter. In ‘After Ever Happy,’ Tessa accepts that she cannot give birth to a child herself, indicating that her chances of becoming a mother are through either adoption or surrogacy. The other possibility is getting pregnant despite the risk of not completing the term, only to potentially lose her baby. Since ‘After Everything’ doesn’t explain how Tessa is pregnant despite her condition, the viewers can be wondering whether the little girl who features at the end of the film is the couple’s adoptive daughter and whether Tessa is taking a risk with her pregnancy.
Anna Todd’s ‘After Ever Happy,’ the fourth novel in the book series that serves as the source of the ‘After’ movies, gives more clarity concerning Tessa’s pregnancy and her and Hardin’s daughter. The little girl is really the couple’s daughter, born to Tessa and described as a “miracle” in the novel. “‘We need a miracle.’ She [Tessa] nodded, trying to joke, but she came off so serious. Seven months later, we had a blond little miracle named Emery,” reads the novel. Like the film, the novel also doesn’t explain how Tessa gives birth to a girl with an incompetent cervix.
According to the experts at Mayo Clinic, it is not impossible to give birth to a child with an incompetent cervix. As per the medical center, regular prenatal care, a healthy diet, regulated weight gain, and the avoidance of risky substances can help a mother to have a healthy, full-term pregnancy. Tessa must have been extremely careful during her pregnancy term, resulting in the birth of Emery. In the fourth novel, Tessa gets pregnant again with a baby boy. “I was pregnant with our second child. A little boy. His name was set to be Auden. Auden was going to be a big boy—my stomach was swollen, my skin stretched once again with pregnancy. I was so tired toward the end, but I was determined to stay on task,” the novel further reads.
In the book, Tessa suffers a miscarriage before giving birth to Emery, which is not a part of the film’s narrative. After trying to get pregnant for a year, a test confirms that Tessa is going to be a mother. But the joy of her and Hardin doesn’t last long. After a few months, Hardin finds Tessa in their restroom, with blood on the floor. He then takes her to a hospital but the doctors fail to save their baby. “Thirty minutes later, we had an answer. They [the doctors] were gentle when they told us Tessa had lost the baby, but that didn’t stop the splintering pain that shot through me every time I looked at the complete devastation in Tessa’s eyes,” reads the novel.
