What in the nine hells makes you think Beatrice would go through pregnancy again?
To breed another heir, of course. She's the sort to have Plans B through Z, and she certainly has the resources to continue a pregnancy in an incubator if she found it inconvenient to carry it to term. Where the child or children developed would be of little interest to her, but the right genetic material would be of vital importance. Hanners and that infernal sensitivity and conscience of hers is no doubt a concern to Beatrice if not an outright disappointment. Having tried to breed one heir with an ethical if scatter-brained genius, she may well have opted for a second attempt with a fellow brigand. (It occurs to me, did Jeph model Beatrice on Gaius Helen Mohiam?)
I'm not predicting that this is where Jeph is taking the story, but it's certainly consistent with the personality of the "[a]lmost completely amoral" character he's created.
Hmmmh - I wouldn't exactly characterize Hannermom as
"the sort to have Plans B through Z", rather than
"used to solving problems with the time-honoroured Elephant bull method". That which she can't bully, intimidate, or simply ignore into getting out of her way quick enough, she solves by throwing lots of money at. When faced with problems not amenable to those strategies, she's even more out of her depth than Hannelore or Hannerdad - both are eccentrics, but at least they
try to adapt to the world around them. In fact, outside of the corporate shark-tank, Hannermom appears a little ... not
naive, but
unfinished maybe? Hanners freaks out when out of her comfort-zone, Beatrice throws a tantrum, that's the main difference between them besides the conscientiousness - and conscientiousness
can be an adaptation to/by-product of living with OCD (Which, in turn,
can be a reaction to/co-morbid with AD(H)D, which is hereditary, to a degree - and Hannerdad is the
classic "scatterbrain").
And Gaius Helen Mohiam cared enough about her daughter to take a Gom Jabbar to her throat
in person (Also, Jessica was Mohiam's PA before the latter married her of to Leto. IIRC, their fairly intense love/hate-relationship was already established by Herbert the Elder).
Well, in 922 Beatrice did mention that she didn't know how she got pregnant. It doesn't entirely rule out IVF, but at least it seems highly unlikely that it was planned by Beatrice. Then again, there's her father...
I don't think that line indicates she's unclear about the errrrh ... "how" of the process of Hanners arriving in this world, rather that it might have involved alcohol & recriminations (
"Scatterbrain, meet Martini").
Edit: Just found this under 913: "Hanner's mom finally makes her appearance! Apologies to William Gibson for borrowing heavily from his Tessier-Ashpool characters." So the person who suggested the TA's as inspiration for the E/C's was right!?!