According to the Los Angeles Times, Deidre Hall built a successful career on "Days of Our Lives," but her personal life struggled as she tried for several years to conceive a child. The actor tried artificial insemination and in-vitro fertilization in hopes of getting pregnant, but she was left without results. "I spent two years doing in-vitro trying to get pregnant, and finally my doctor said, 'You are out of the baby business,' so we looked at surrogacy," Hall told Closer Weekly.

At the age of 48, Hall and her husband Steve Sohmer decided to hire a surrogate to carry their child. The woman, named Robin, quickly became a close friend to the couple. Robin donated her egg, which was fertilized by Sohmer's sperm. "There is enormous power in women working together ... And it came as no surprise to me that surrogacy would've worked for me," Hall later revealed to Yahoo.

Robin gave birth to the Halls' oldest son, David Atticus, in 1992, right as Hall was in the middle of a dramatic soap opera scene. The process was so successful for the soap star that she and her husband did it all again with Robin three years later when David's younger brother, Tully Chapin, was born. Hall's infertility journey was so inspirational that a TV movie was made about it. Of course, Hall played the role of herself.