February 3, 2010

Three Tips the Duggars Needs to Know Before Becoming Pregnant Again

Posted in Grand Multiparous, health insurance, high-risk pregnancy, Hospitals, Mothers, Ob-Gyn, Pregnancy, pregnant women tagged , , , , , , , at 10:16 am by drlindagalloway

The Universe is speaking to Michelle Duggar and hopefully she’ll take a moment to listen.  Duggar is a 43 y.o. housewife whose life is chronicled on TLC’s TV reality series, 19 Children and Counting. While it’s admirable to watch Duggar and her husband, Jim Bob, navigate life raising a plethora of children, pregnancy and giving birth is not an entirely benign act.

The February 8th issue of People Magazine (The Duggar Baby: Her Fight for life) gave an exclusive account of Duggar’s most recent delivery that was complicated by both preterm birth at 25-weeks and pre-eclampsia. If the truth be told, both mom and baby are lucky to be alive. Duggar had delivered her 18th child just six months prior to conceiving her 19th. Her body did not have ample time to heal. Profound changes occur in the heart, lungs and kidneys of pregnant women. The body has more fluid circulating and the lungs have less air present at the end of each breath. The gallbladder also does not process fat properly and some pregnant women develop gallstones which is exactly what happen to Duggar.  She had a gallstone attack and developed pre-eclampsia that warranted an emergency cesarean section.  Her premature baby weighed 1lb 6oz.

It is not clear whether Duggar has received properly counseling from her ob healthcare practitioner, so let me jump in.

  1. Ms. Duggar, you are 43 years old and have what’s known in obstetrics as Advanced Maternal Age. This condition predisposes you to several high-risk conditions including pre-eclampsia, preterm labor and a host of other issues.
  2. You’ve carried 19 children in your uterus and its muscles are stretched to the max. Post-partum hemorrhage lies high on the list as a future complication.
  3. You’ve also had a cesarean section and now have the potential to have a placental abruption (early placenta separation from the uterus) as well as a placenta accreta (the placenta sticks to the uterine incision and is extremely difficult to remove).

The Bible says to go forth and multiply and you’ve followed directions well. Now pat yourself on the back and give your body a well deserved rest. You escaped serious harm because of Divine Intervention and a skilled medical staff. Please, do not push the envelope.

7 Comments »

  1. [...] See the article here: Three Tips the Duggars Needs to Know Before Becoming Pregnant … [...]

  2. Millie said,

    Congratulations! After all the hateful comments out there about the Duggars, this is the first one suggesting that they don’t have another baby that made good medical sense. True, she is a high risk mother because of adv maternal age and is an extreme multi-gravida. She has also now had 4 C-Sections. The final straw probably was, as you so succinctly pointed out the fact that she had these last two so close together. Her other babies were about 18 months apart so her body had 9 months to recover between pregnancies. Her Obstetrician had said after the last birth that her reproductive organs remained healthy and thus she wasn’t concerned about getting pregnant again. She was amazed that it happened so soon, and I think she actually didn’t think she would get pregnant again after the 18th. She gave all signs of a mother expecting this would be her last baby. If they won’t use at least a barrier method of BC I would hope they would try abstinence for a good lenght of time to allow her body to recover. She isn’t just an advocate of the Quiverful philosphy but also believes that birth control amounts to abortion which in her mind is murder.

  3. Social comments and analytics for this post…

    This post was mentioned on Twitter by lingal17: Three Tips the Duggars Needs to Know Before Becoming Pregnant Again http://is.gd/7Cluw

  4. [...] written about Duggar before out of genuine concern and received over 2,000 comments on the Basil and Spice website. [...]

  5. [...] written about Duggar before out of genuine concern and received over 2,000 comments on the Basil and Spice website. [...]

  6. [...] written about Duggar before out of genuine concern and received over 2,000 comments on the Basil and Spice website. [...]

    • Thanks for your comment, Sarah. I’ll keep that in mind if I ever come to your house (lol). Have a happy holiday.


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